At Least 7 Arrested In Germany And Sweden On Suspicion Of Committing War Crimes In Syria

At least seven people have been arrested in Germany and Sweden on suspicion of committing crimes against humanity and war crimes in Syria in 2012-2014, authorities in the two countries said Wednesday.

In a coordinated effort that also involved the European Union judicial cooperation agency Eurojust, the EU police agency Europol, and several other unnamed European countries, four were arrested in Germany and three in Sweden.

The German federal prosecutor said that those arrested in Germany were “strongly suspected of killing and attempting to kill civilians.” Some of those arrested also were suspected of torture.

The four arrested in Germany are known only as Jihad A., Mahmoud A., Sameer S. and Wael S. and had been affiliated with the Free Palestine Movement, an armed militia in Syria, since early 2011. German prosecutors did not give their last names in line with privacy rules. Sweden did not identify the three it arrested.

At the time, the militia exercised control over Damascus’ mostly Palestinian district of al-Yarmouk on behalf of the Syrian regime, Germany’s federal prosecutor said. Since July 2013, the Syrian regime had cordoned off the area completely, resulting in a shortage of food, water, and medical supplies.

Read more: AP