Indictment Filed against an Alleged Member of the Foreign Terrorist Organisation “Islamic State (ISIS)” on Counts of Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes, Among Others

Year of issue 2022
Date 29.06.2022

On 14 June 2022, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office filed charges against

the Syrian national Raed E.

before the State Security Chamber of the Berlin Higher Regional Court (Kammergericht).

There are sufficient reasons for suspecting the accused of membership in a foreign terrorist organisation (section 129a [1] no. 1, section 129b [1] sentences 1 and 2 of the German Criminal Code [StGB]). Additionally, he is charged with crimes against humanity (section 7 [1] nos. 5, 9 and 10 of the Code of Crimes against International Law [VStGB]), war crimes (section 8 [1] no. 3 VStGB) and grievous bodily harm (section 223 [1], section 224 [1] nos. 2, 4 and 5 StGB).

In essence, the submitted bill of indictment sets out the following state of affairs:

Raed E. joined the foreign terrorist organisation “Islamic State (ISIS)” as a member in the Deir ez-Zor Governate (Syria) in summer of 2014. Starting at the end of July / beginning of August 2014, ISIS waged a brutal campaign of violence in that area against the local Al-Shaitat tribe. In the beginning, there were mass executions followed by the indiscriminate detention of predominantly male tribe members. The persons held captive in ISIS prisons were frequently exposed to severe bodily abuse by ISIS members. At the time, between 700 and 1,000 people died as a result of ISIS’s course of action againist the Al-Shaitat tribe.

Raed E. and other ISIS fighters captured a male member of the Al-Shaitat tribe between mid-September and November 2014. The victim was arrested in an ISIS camp as he was enquiring about his brother who had previously been abducted by the organisation. The accused and other ISIS members hung the victim to the ceiling, with his hands tied behind his back, and repeatedly whipped, beat and kicked him. The victim was then detained in several IS prisons for more than two months. There, the accused and other ISIS members repeatedly abused him with pointed, sharp or heavy objects, and subjected him to electrocution.

ISIS also held the aforementioned victim’s 13-year-old brother captive for several months. During this period, Raed E. once transported the brother from one to another ISIS prison. On a separate occasion, the accused ordered two ISIS members to hang the brother to the ceiling, with his hands tied behind his back.

Another male member of the Al-Shaitat tribe spent four and a half months in ISIS captivity. Raed E. and another ISIS member abused him twice during his imprisonment. Accordingly, the prisoner was pulled to the ceiling with a rope around his hands, which were tied behind his back, to the point where merely the tip of his toes were touching the ground. The accused proceeded to beat the victim’s feet with a water hose. The accused also used a water hose to hit the prisoner’s entire body except the head.

Raed E. remained a member of ISIS until February 2015. As a member, he also took on other tasks for the organisation. Among others, he arranged and managed ransom payments for imprisoned members of the Al-Shaitat tribe and was assigned to three IS checkpoints in the tribal area.

On 6 April 2022, the accused was taken into custody and has been in pre-trial detention ever since (see Press Releases nos. 21 and 23 of 6 and 7 April 2022).