Syrian goes on trial in Germany over IS atrocities

A Syrian man went on trial in Germany on Thursday accused of involvement in bloody crimes committed by the Islamic State group in Syria, including beheadings.

The 33-year-old man, partially named by prosecutors as Ahmad A., faces charges at the Duesseldorf court including belonging to a foreign terrorist organisation and being an accomplice to murder.

Prosecutors say he was part of an IS unit between 2014 and 2017 and that he was active in patrols around the eastern Syrian town of Kishkiya and as a guide for IS foreign fighters.

In August 2014 his unit is alleged to have arrested numerous men from a particular tribe, two of whom were immediately beheaded and the rest abused and tortured.

Ahmad A. is suspected of helping enable the killings by keeping watch for the unit with a Kalashnikov assault rifle.

The other detainees were moved to another location the next morning and some of them were also killed.

Ahmad A. was arrested in January 2025 in the town of Monheim am Rhein in western Germany, where he was living.

The trial is expected to last until at least late March.

Germany is home to around a million Syrians, many of whom arrived during the huge migrant influx that peaked in 2015.

Several Syrians have stood trial in Germany for crimes committed in the conflict in their homeland, either as members of armed groups or as part of the security forces of former president Bashar al-Assad.