War crimes in Syria: a step on the road to justice for the victims?

Anwar al-Bunni does not hide his joy over the sentencing, on 24 February 2021, of former Syrian intelligence agent Eyad al-Gharib to four and a half years in prison for ‘complicity in crimes against humanity’. “This is a historic verdict. I am happy, not because of the conviction of this individual, but because the judge stated very clearly that he was a cog in the wheel of a state policy to use widespread and systematic torture. Bashar al-Assad’s name was mentioned five times in the verdict,” says the 62-year-old Syrian lawyer, who himself testified at the High Regional Court in Koblenz, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.