German police arrested on Tuesday a Syrian man suspected of committing crimes against humanity, including killing and torturing, as a militia leader in 2011 in Aleppo, prosecutors said.
The Syrian national, identified only as Anwar S. in line with German privacy laws, is suspected of being head of the "shabiha militia" deployed in Aleppo on behalf of the former Syrian leadership under then-President Bashar al-Assad.
Prosecutors said that on eight occasions between April and November 2011 after Friday prayers, the suspect and his militia hit civilians with batons, metal pipes and other tools to disperse protests. Electric shocks were also believed to have been used, they added in a statement.
Some protesters were handed over to police and intelligence authorities and, while detained, subjected to severe abuse, said the prosecutors, adding in once case, a protester died.
Germany has targeted several former Syrian officials in the last few years under universal jurisdiction laws that allow prosecutors to seek trials for suspects in crimes against humanity committed anywhere in the world.
The Assad family dynasty’s autocratic, repressive 50-year rule in Syria abruptly collapsed in December, when then-President Bashar Assad was ousted in a lightning insurgent offensive led by Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Assad’s fall ended nearly 14 years of civil war.