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A former Syrian intelligence officer who fled to the UK has been charged with murder and torture as crimes against humanity, in the first prosecution of its kind in England and Wales.
The 58-year-old man, who has not been named for legal reasons, is alleged to have played a leading role in the violent crackdown on protesters in Syria at the start of uprising against the regime of former leader Bashar al-Assad in 2011.
The man has been charged with three counts of murder as a crime against humanity, three counts of torture, and one offence of conduct ancillary to murder as a crime against humanity. He is due to appear at Westminster magistrates court on Tuesday, where his lawyers are expected to apply for reporting restrictions to protect his identity.
The accused was a member of Syrian airforce intelligence, when he was allegedly tasked with quelling demonstrations in the suburbs of Damascus. The charges relate to protests from April 2011, which were violently suppressed, sparking a civil war that eventually led to the overthrow of Assad’s regime in December 2024.
The man was first arrested in Buckinghamshire in 2021. The Metropolitan police said the charges showed there was no safe haven for alleged war criminals in the UK.
Germany has prosecuted several men for war crimes during the Syrian conflict, but this is the first time the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has brought charges of murder and torture as crimes against humanity under the International Criminal Court Act 2001.
After his arrest in December 2021 on suspicion of war crimes, the man’s Buckinghamshire home was searched. At the time he was released on bail pending further inquiries.
On Monday, Bethan David, the head of the CPS’s counter- terrorism division, said: “We have determined that a 58-year-old man should be prosecuted with charges of murder as a crime against humanity, and torture.
“Our prosecutors have concluded that there is sufficient evidence to bring seven offences under the International Criminal Court Act 2001 and the Criminal Justice Act 1988.
“We have worked closely with the war crimes team at the Metropolitan police service as they carried out their investigation.”
Commander Helen Flanagan, the head of counter-terrorism at the Met, said: “This has been an incredibly complex and challenging investigation, involving inquiries across many countries.
“This has required close cooperation with a number of international partners, as well as our colleagues in the CPS.
“The charges are extremely serious and show that we fully support the UK’s ‘no safe haven’ policy in relation to alleged war criminals.
“Where we are presented with allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity that fall within our jurisdiction, then, as we have shown here, we will not hesitate to investigate those rigorously and robustly.”
