GERMANY STRUCTURAL INVESTIGATIONS AGAINST THE SYRIAN GOVERNMENT Facts Context Ongoing structural investigation of the German Federal Public Prosecutor into crimes under international law allegedly committed by the Syrian government and related institutions since 2011 Suspects Unknown The investigation focuses on international crimes committed by the Syrian regime since 2011, including crimes committed by four Syrian intelligence services. In the context of the Syrian uprising, the intelligence services allegedly played the key role in counteracting the civil movement by persecuting organizers and participants of demonstrations, arresting and detaining persons perceived as a threat to the regime, and interrogating them under torture. For these purposes, the intelligence services operate numerous branches and detention facilities across the country. The crimes committed in those detention facilities include systematic torture, sexual violence, inhuman treatment, killings, and exposure to inhuman prison conditions. Country of residence Procedure of suspects Syria and others Charges Crimes against war crimes humanity and Developments in 2018 The Office of the German Federal Public Prosecutor continued to hear witness testimonies and to receive evidence in form of documents, pictures, videos, etc. Out of the structural investigation, once there is sufficient evidence against individual suspects, personspecific investigation is initiated. Current status Ongoing investigation In September 2011, the German Federal Prosecutor opened a structural investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Syria since 2011. This investigation is aimed at gathering evidence of crimes committed by the Syrian government, and was particularly advanced by the release of photographs taken by the former employee of the Syrian military police, codenamed ‘Caesar’. He handed over more than 53,000 photographs taken in Syria between May 2011 and August 2013, showing over 6,000 corpses of detainees with visible marks of torture and inhuman treatment. The structural investigation has resulted thus far in investigations against at least 10 individuals involved in crimes committed by the Syrian government. On 1 March 2017, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) together with seven Syrian victims, the Syrian Center for Legal Researches and Studies (SCLRS), and the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), filed a 41 criminal complaint against six highlevel officials of the Syrian Military Intelligence Directorate with the Office of the German Federal Public Prosecutor. The complaint addresses crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in detention centers controlled by the Syrian Military Intelligence Directorate, in particular in the Branches 235, 215, and 227. The high-ranking officials are suspected of bearing criminal responsibility as superior commanders, indirect perpetrators of or accomplices in unlawful arrests, detention, torture, sexual violence, and other inhuman acts committed in the detention facilities of those branches between May 2011 and July 2015. At the beginning of May 2017, the complainants were heard by the prosecutor. On 21 September 2017, the Caesar File Support Group, together with ECCHR, filed a criminal complaint with the Office of the German Federal Public Prosecutor against senior officials of the Syrian intelligence services and the military police, for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Syrian detention facilities; complementing the evidence provided in the complaint of 1 March 2017. A representative of the Caesar File Support Group provided the prosecutor with a set of highresolution images of deceased and tortured detainees.