Advertisement

German court lengthens Syrian kidnapper's jail term

AFP
AFP - [email protected]
German court lengthens Syrian kidnapper's jail term
Syrian Deputy Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad (R) speaks with Canadian lawyer Carl Campeau (C) and the United Nations' resident representative in Syria Jacob al-Hilo (L)after Campeau was release

A German appeals court Wednesday lengthened the jail term for a Syrian refugee found guilty of war crimes and taking part in the kidnapping of a Canadian UN peacekeeper.

Advertisement

The defendant, named only as Suliman al-S., 28, was sentenced to four years 
and nine months for the 2013 abduction carried out in Damascus by an Islamist militant group.

German prosecutors had appealed against a more lenient prison term of three 
and a half years that the Stuttgart court had handed down in September 2017.

Suliman al-S. arrived in Germany as a refugee in 2014 and was later granted 
asylum.

In January 2016 he became the first Syrian to be arrested in Germany for 
war crimes committed in his homeland.

The Stuttgart court in September 2017 found him guilty of war crimes and  aiding and abetting the abduction of UN observer Carl Campeau.

Campeau, a veteran UN legal advisor, has written a book about his ordeal at 
the hands of the Al-Qaeda linked Nusra Front, which demanded a seven-million-dollar ransom for their captive.

Campeau, who had been stationed in the Golan Heights with the UN 
Disengagement Observer Force, has said he was abused and forced to convert to Islam by his captors before, after eight months in captivity, he managed to 
escape.

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also