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Trial against Abdelkarim E.B. (2018)

The defendant was accused of having participated in Syria as a member of a foreign terrorist organization (“Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” (“ISIL”)) (§§ 129a, 129b StGB) and of having committed a war crime against persons (§ 8 para. 1 no. 3 VStGB).

Abdelkarim E.B. was in Syria from September 2013 until early February 2014. In September 2013, he allegedly participated as a member of ISIL in the cruel and inhumane treatment of a person protected under international humanitarian law. Following the orders of a leader (so-called “Emir”), at least seven ISIL members tortured a man in their custody, whom they classified as an enemy, by beating and kicking him and threatening him. Abdelkarim E.B. is said to have filmed this torture, which lasted at least ten minutes, with his mobile phone on the orders of the leader.

On September 24, 2019, the State Security Senate of the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main convicted Abdelkarim E.B. of aiding and abetting a war crime against persons in conjunction with membership in a foreign terrorist organization (“ISIL”)—taking into account a previous final conviction—and sentenced him to a total prison term of ten years.

The proceedings were fully documented by our monitors. The anonymized weekly reports of the 14 trial days will follow.