A 58-year-old man, accused of being the lead interrogator in a Syrian paramilitary group, has denied the charges against him, telling judges on Wednesday that the allegations were “lies.”
Rafiq al Q is on trial in The Hague, facing 25 counts of torture and sexual assault. According to the public prosecution service, he was the chief interrogator for the National Defence Force, a paramilitary group affiliated with the Syrian regime.
“The people who said I was hitting them…that is not correct,” the man said, speaking through an interpreter.
The case is the first in the Netherlands where the accused is alleged to be a member of pro-Assad forces. The government of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad was overthrown in 2024.
Earlier, Mustafa A, who sought asylum in the Netherlands in 2020, was sentenced to 12 years in 2024 for torturing civilians. Another a Syrian man who has been a refugee in the Netherlands since 2014 was jailed for 23.5 years on appeal for his role in the killing of a Syrian army officer and for terrorism.
The Netherlands uses a legal principle known as universal jurisdiction to prosecute people accused of very serious crimes that took place abroad.
Proceedings against Rafiq al Q will continue into May and judges expect to issue a verdict on June 8.
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