Federal Court of Justice - Maximum sentence for war crimes in Damascus confirmed
A man has rightly been sentenced to the maximum penalty for a deadly attack on people waiting at a distribution point for aid packages in the Syrian capital Damascus. The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in Karlsruhe confirmed the decision of the Berlin Court of Appeal in February, which had found the then 55-year-old of Palestinian origin guilty of a particularly serious war crime as well as four counts of murder and attempted murder in two cases. The judges imposed a life sentence and established the particular gravity of the guilt, which would have virtually ruled out early release after 15 years.
When reviewing the verdict, the third criminal senate of the Federal Court of Justice found no legal errors, according to information provided on Friday. "The judgment is therefore legally binding," it continued. (Ref. 3 StR 306/23)
According to the Court of Appeal, the man had shot into a crowd of people without warning and deliberately with an anti-tank weapon on 23 March 2014 in the Al Yarmouk district, a neighborhood of Damascus that had emerged from a Palestinian refugee camp. "To avoid starvation", the people there had gathered to distribute relief supplies. The attack was an act of revenge after the man's 25-year-old nephew had been killed shortly beforehand in an exchange of fire with fighters from the "Free Syrian Army" (FSA).
Press release
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Source: www.stern.de
