Zoom in On 6 November 2017, 11 Syrian torture victims, supported by ECCHR, SCLSR and SCM, filed two more criminal complaints with the Office of the German Federal Public Prosecutor. The complaints denounce crimes against humanity and war crimes allegedly committed in various detention facilities of five branches of the Air Force Intelligence Directorate in Damascus, Aleppo and Hama, as well as in the Saydnaya military prison. France and Germany join forces against impunity in Syria France and Germany are conducting a structural investigation on war crimes and crimes against humanity by armed groups and Syrian officials. The recent crossborder arrest warrants against the very top of al-Assad’s regime are first victories and a new hope for justice and accountability for victims. The complaints target high-ranking officials of the National Security Office and Air Force Intelligence Directorate, among them the head of the Air Force Intelligence Directorate, Jamil Hassan, as well as high-ranking Syrian military officials. These milestones demonstrate that extraterritorial justice has an essential role to play in pursuing those responsible for the gravest crimes perpetrated against civilians in Syria since March 2011. It is now clear that perpetrators, regardless of their rank, will face justice. Jamil Hassan, Ali Mamluk and Abdel Salam Faraj Mahmoud will not be able to travel freely anymore. The three arrest warrants create an obligation on other states to extradite the accused to France or, in the case of Jamil Hassan, France or Germany. In June 2018, a person-specific investigation against Jamil Hassan, head of the Syrian Air Force Intelligence Directorate, by the German Federal Prosecutor resulted in an arrest warrant announced by the German Federal Court of Justice. The suspect is accused of having committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. Read more about the case 42