For the first time worldwide, a high-ranking Syrian official was convicted for crimes against humanity. The former member of the Syrian intelligence services was sentenced to life imprisonment for the deaths - as a result of torture and inhumane imprisonment conditions - of 27 members of the regime's opposition. The judgement, handed down by the German Higher Regional Court of Koblenz on 13 January 2022, marked the final step in a joint investigation set up in 2018 between Germany and France and supported by Eurojust and its Genocide Network.