Indictment Filed Against a Suspected Member of the Foreign Terrorist Organisation ‘Islamic State’, Among Others on Suspicion of War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity

Year of issue 2025
Date 15.01.2025

On 20 December 2024, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office filed charges against the

Syrian national Ossama A.

before the State Security Chamber of the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court.

There are sufficient grounds to suspect the accused of membership in a foreign terrorist organisation (section 129a para. 1 no. 1, section 129b para. 1 sentences 1 and 2 of the German Criminal Code [StGB]). He is also charged with war crimes against property (section 9 of the German Code of Crimes against International Law [VStGB]), aiding and abetting war crimes against persons (section 8 para. 1 nos. 4 and 5 VStGB, section 27 para. 1 StGB), crimes against humanity and aiding and abetting such crimes (section 7 para. 1 nos. 3, 6, 9 and 10 VStGB, section 27 para. 1 StGB) as well as aiding and abetting genocide (section 6 para. 1 no. 3 VStGB, section 27 para. 1 StGB).

In essence, the indictment sets out the following facts:

Since spring 2011, the Syrian regime cracked down on critics nationwide with increasing brutality. The objective was to suppress the protest movement from early on and to intimidate the population. In early 2012, tensions in Syria evolved into a large-scale civil war in which particularly Syrian government forces and armed opposition groups were fighting against each other. The foreign terrorist organisation ‘Islamic State’ (IS) was part of the latter.

Ossama A. joined the ‘Islamic State’ as a member in the Deir ez-Zor area no later than summer 2014. He assumed a senior position within the organisation’s local security division and played a crucial role in the forced appropriation of real estate and in the exploitation of pillaged furniture and other valuables. He, in concert with a unit under his command, seized especially private houses on no less than 13 occasions, which subsequently served as accommodations for fighters, as offices or storages. Ossama A. oversaw the accommodation of fighters in said houses and supplied them with food. The ‘Islamic State’ used two of the buildings as prisons for kidnapped female Yazidis who were subjected to sexual abuse and other forms of exploitation by fighters. This practice constituted in integral element in the organisation’s publicly pursued goal to annihilate the Yazidi religious community. Ossama A. directed one of these prisons and made them accessible to fighters of the ‘Islamic State’. The building was partially destroyed during an air raid.

In summer 2014, Ossama A. recruited his then 14-year-old nephew as member for the ‘Islamic Statue’. The minor underwent military training and participated in armed hostilities in Aleppo.

On 11 April 2024, the accused was taken into custody and has since been in pre-trial detention (see Press Release No. 17 of 11 April 2024).