Two Syrian officers accused of torture and war crimes went on trial in Vienna on Monday after hiding in plain sight in Europe for over a decade, the culmination of a yearslong manhunt by investigators and a groundbreaking case for Austria.
One of the officers, the former brigadier general Khaled al-Halabi, is the highest-ranking official of President Bashar al-Assad’s government to appear in a European court on charges of war crimes. He eluded investigators for years with help from members of the Israeli and Austrian intelligence services, according to prosecutors, until his detention in 2024.
Mr. al-Halabi, 63, a member of the Druze minority in Syria, served in the Syrian intelligence service while also working as a double agent for Israeli intelligence, prosecutors said. Late last year he was charged with helping suppress protests from 2011 to 2013, while serving as head of State Security in Raqqa, Syria.
Also charged was Musab Abu Rukbah, 54, a former lieutenant colonel who had served as the head of investigations in the local criminal police department and later led the Political Security office, an intelligence agency within the Ministry of Interior, in Raqqa.
Both were granted asylum in Austria and have been living there since 2015.
The case is Austria’s first against officials from the Assad regime, and comes as countries like Germany and Sweden have prosecuted other Syrians in the absence of an international tribunal for the widespread atrocities committed during Syria’s civil war.
The two men appeared before a five-member jury consisting of four women and one man at the court, in Vienna.
Mr. al-Halabi entered surrounded by masked police officers, holding a notebook in front of his face to hide from photographers. In shirt and slacks, the bespectacled former intelligence chief sat slightly hunched over his notes, staring straight ahead at the floor.
Mr. Abu Rukbah, heavy set, in suit and tie, strode in at the last minute. He has not been detained to date because he is not considered a flight risk.
The two men sat apart on a bench. Mr. Abu Rukbah looked closely at Mr. al-Halabi and around the room, his brow wrinkled. Mr. al-Halabi never turned to look at Mr. Abu Rukbah.
Both face charges of sexual coercion, aggravated coercion and inflicting bodily harm, with the purpose of suppressing the Syrian civil protest movement through force, according to an indictment prepared by the Vienna Public Prosecutor’s Office.
In addition, the prosecutor said that Mr. al-Halabi was charged with torture over events in early 2013 that involved two witnesses. The maximum prison sentence that can be passed down for sexual coercion or torture is 10 years, the prosecutor said.
The two men both pleaded not guilty.
In his statement for the defense, Mr. al-Halabi’s lawyer, Timo Gerersdorfer, said that, under the Assad regime, his client had no freedom of action to refuse or to resign from a position. While Mr. al-Halabi had been one of five men running the security commission in Raqqa, he was from the Druze minority, Mr. Gerersdorfer noted, while the other members were from the ruling Alawite sect, and Mr. al-Halabi did not make the decisions.
Mr. Abu Rukbah’s lawyer, Philipp Wolm, said that there was little evidence against his client and that the accusations were weak because of possible misidentification.
The trial sets the stage for Syrian witnesses to confront in court the men they have accused of torture.
Those expected to testify include 18 Syrian civilians, among them former protesters, a doctor and a former official who say they were tortured in Mr. al-Halabi’s office in the early days of Syria’s civil war.
Witnesses suffered beatings, electric shocks and sexual abuse during repeated interrogations in Mr. al-Halabi’s office, sometimes in his presence, according to the indictment. Some endured broken bones and torture on a device known as a “flying carpet,” a wooden contraption that bent a detainee double, damaging the spine, and were subjected to “prolonged periods of agony over weeks,” the indictment said.
There is no international tribunal for crimes committed during the 12 years of Syria’s civil war, in part because Russia and China vetoed an effort early in the war to empower the International Criminal Court to prosecute cases from Syria.
The current Syrian government, led by the former rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa since opposition forces overthrew the Assad regime in late 2024, has recently begun to prosecute former Assad officials in Syria.
But during the long years of war, it was left up to individual countries to bring cases to trial. Those investigations have been driven mostly by Syrian activists opposed to the Assad regime and nonprofit organizations focused on documenting and exposing war crimes and compiling evidence.
Tracking and bringing Mr. al-Halabi and Mr. Abu Rukbah to court turned into one of the longest and most complex investigations of all.
Members of one nonprofit, the Commission for International Justice and Accountability, have been investigating Mr. al-Halabi for 12 years. The group notified the Austrian government of his presence in Austria in 2016, said Nerma Jelacic, the organization’s spokeswoman.
“The start of this case underlines once again that justice is achievable even if it takes longer than expected,” she said. “Halabi is one of the highest-ranking Syrian regime officials to be put on trial charged with a very serious litany of crimes.”
Other groups joined the pursuit to bring Mr. al-Halabi to trial and supported the witnesses, who were found dispersed across Europe. Many still suffer post-traumatic stress syndrome from their ordeals up to 15 years earlier.
These investigations led to the disclosure, in a separate court case, that Mr. al-Halabi had been an agent for the Israeli intelligence service Mossad, which had helped him travel to Austria and apply for asylum in 2015.
In April 2023, a trial opened against five Austrians — four former officials of B.V.T., Austria’s domestic intelligence agency, and a former asylum agency official — accused of abusing their offices to procure asylum for Mr. al-Halabi under an agreement with Mossad.
The former head of B.V.T. had traveled to Israel on his own initiative and made the cooperation agreement with Mossad in 2015, according to the prosecution.
Neither the Israeli government nor Mossad replied to questions about their involvement with Mr. al-Halabi.
Four of the Austrian officials were acquitted in the case and the fifth, who was absent for ill health, is wanted under an international arrest warrant. The trial nevertheless exposed Mr. al-Halabi, who was called as a witness, and confirmed his presence in Austria.
Mr. Abu Rukbah, who is accused of personally carrying out beatings, was first spotted in a refugee camp in Austria in 2014 by a man who is now among the accusers.
The man, Asyad Almousa, a Syrian lawyer, came face to face with Mr. Abu Rukbah in the camp and tried to confront him before friends pulled him away to avoid an altercation. He reported the presence of Mr. Abu Rukbah to the Austrian authorities.
Shortly afterward, Mr. Abu Rukbah was removed from the camp, but he was granted asylum and remained living with his family in rented accommodation for more than a decade. Mr. Almousa nevertheless continued cooperating over the years with prosecutors and investigators.
“We lived moments of terror because of those who headed the security agencies,” he said recently, “so our feelings are very beautiful and I feel happy because justice will take its course.”
Saad Alnassife contributed reporting from Damascus, Syria, and Hussam Hammoud and Naz Kucuktekin from Vienna.
