A court in the southern German city of Stuttgart on Tuesday sentenced a Syrian man to life in prison for war crimes it said he committed during Syria's civil war while fighting for the country's former dictator, Bashar Assad.

The trial, which began last October, involved testimony from 30 witnesses, most of them Syrian nationals now living around the world.

The court said the verdict could be appealed.

What was the man accused of?

The 33-year-old was found guilty of leading a Hezbollah-backed militia that committed atrocities against Sunni Muslim civilians in his home town of Busra al-Sham in southern Syria.

The Lebanese Iranian-backed Shiite group Hezbollah gave its support to Assad during the civil war.

Among other things, the court found that in 2012, the militia raided and plundered the house of an unarmed 21-year-old student, shooting him dead. The victim's mother and brother were among the witnesses for the prosecution.

The court also said that in 2013, the militia beat three people with Kalashnikovs before handing them over to Assad's military intelligence, which tortured them and held them captive under inhumane conditions. 

The court verdict also said the group in 2014 forced a 40-year-old man and his family from their home, after which the man was tortured to such extent that he was unable to walk owing to his injuries.

The man was arrested in December 2023 in the southern state of Baden-Württemberg, of which Stuttgart is the capital.

Trials under universal jurisdiction

German prosecutors have made use of universal jurisdiction laws to seek trials for several suspects believed to have committed atrocities during Syria's civil war.

In 2022, a German court handed a life sentence to ex-intelligence officer Anwar Raslan for murder, rape and crimes against humanity committed at the notorious Al-Khatib jail in 2011 and 2012, the first conviction for state-backed torture committed during Syria's civil war.

Several other cases relating to crimes committed during the Syrian civil war are being heard by German courts, as well as in France and Sweden.

Syria's civil war, which began after a crackdown by Assad's regime on peaceful pro-democracy protests in 2011, ended only in late 2024 when the autocratic leader was ousted in an Islamist-led rebel offensive.

Edited by: Wesley Rahn