Syrian authorities arrest former Assad-era officer Musab Ahmad Abu Rukbah in Daraa after he fled Austria following a torture conviction.
DAMASCUS: Syrian authorities have arrested a former security officer who fled Austria after being convicted last month of torturing opponents of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad before his ousting in 2024.
Security forces in southern Syria’s Daraa province “arrested former lieutenant colonel Musab Ahmad Abu Rukbah, who served in the criminal and political security branches in Raqa” under Assad, the Syrian state news agency SANA reported late Tuesday.
It said he “illegally entered Syrian territory” and would be brought before the judiciary “to receive his just punishment” after legal procedures had been completed.
In early July, an Austrian court sentenced Abu Rukbah, and Khaled al-Halabi, a former brigadier general in Syria’s intelligence services, to eight years in prison.
The court found that their actions, which took place in the city of Raqa between April 2011 and March 2013, were committed as part of “systematic torture organised by the state”.
Abu Rukbah, a former police lieutenant colonel, was found guilty of serious bodily harm, aggravated coercion and sexual coercion.
Austrian media reported that Abu Rukbah left the country after his conviction without informing authorities there.
The case is one of several that have seen suspects from Syria’s civil war tried in European courts under the legal tool of universal jurisdiction, which allows judges to rule on serious alleged crimes committed abroad.
Abu Rukbah’s arrest in Syria comes after the new authorities in April began proceedings against Assad and other officials accused of atrocities during the country’s nearly 14-year war.
Last week, Syria sentenced Bashar al-Assad and his brother Maher in absentia to death for atrocities committed during the conflict, in the first such ruling under the new authorities.
The court handed the same penalty to Atif Najib, a cousin of Assad and former security official, who was tried in person.
On Tuesday, another of Assad’s cousins, Wassim al-Assad, who also appeared in the dock, was sentenced to death for crimes against humanity and war crimes.
