The Hague, June 15 (SANA)A court inThe Haguesentenced Monday Rafiq al-Qatrib, a former commander in the National Defense militia of the deposed regime, to 26 years in prison after convicting him of 19 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in and around the city of Salamiyah inHamaGovernorate between 2013 and 2014.

The court said the conviction was based on al-Qatrib’s involvement in torture, rape, and sexual violence against eight victims held in three detention facilities near Salamiyah. He was acquitted of charges related to a ninth victim due to insufficient legal evidence.

The court noted that the case sets a legal precedent in the Netherlands as the first to classify other forms of sexual violence of comparable gravity as a crime against humanity, adding that the severity of the crimes and the suffering of the victims were central factors in determining the sentence.

On the civil claims, the court ruled it lacked jurisdiction to consider the financial compensation demands submitted by the victims in this type of criminal proceeding.

“Criminals cannot escape by fleeing to the Netherlands”

The hearing was attended by a significant number of Syrians and Dutch nationals, including survivors of detention, activists, and observers of accountability and justice issues. Speaking to SANA’s correspondent after the session, The Hague court spokesman Gert-Mark Smelt said perpetrators of crimes against humanity cannot escape responsibility simply by fleeing to theNetherlands, describing al-Qatrib’s case as a clear example of that principle.

Syrian survivor Alaa al-Sheikh, a key witness for one of the detained women included in the trial, said: “I told the victim — her name is Reem — that a day would come when we would see justice served against the one who tortured her, and today we witness his trial and sentencing.” He added that they had hoped for a harsher sentence to serve as a lesson to all those who committed crimes against Syrians.

Mohammad al-Hussein, another Syrian who attended the hearing, said they came in support of the victims and to encourage all former detainees to file cases against their tormentors if they are present in the Netherlands, describing the verdict as reasonably just, saying “justice is beginning to appear.”

The investigation was launched following a complaint filed in November 2021 regarding a man residing in the Netherlands suspected of involvement in crimes committed in Syria, based on three testimonies that formed the foundation of the case. Dutch law, under the principle of universal jurisdiction, allows prosecution of foreigners for crimes committed abroad when the perpetrators or some of the victims are present on Dutch soil. The Dutch public prosecution had requested the maximum sentence against al-Qatrib at the conclusion of its closing arguments last April.