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Swedish court hands out lifetime sentence to Syrian man

Xinhua, February 17, 2017 Adjust font size:

A Swedish court has sentenced a Syrian man to life imprisonment for violating international humanitarian law by participating in the execution of seven Syrian government soldiers in the Idlib province in 2012, Swedish media reported Thursday.

The verdict was delivered Thursday and a central piece of evidence in the trial was a graphic video clip that was published by The New York Times in 2013 and received worldwide attention after spreading online.

The video showed members of a rebel group, including the 46-year-old Syrian man, shooting the captured soldiers at close range and aiming at their bodies and heads. The soldiers had their hands tied behind their backs.

The Syrian man was reportedly recruited to the armed rebel group in May 2012 and fled Syria soon after the execution. He applied for asylum in Sweden in 2013 and has lived in the country since then. He was arrested in March last year.

In court, the man admitted to shooting one of the soldiers, but denied having committed a crime, maintaining throughout the trial that the Syrian soldiers had been sentenced to death by a court and that he had carried out the death penalty in accordance with the law.

However, in the Stockholm court, the prosecutor challenged the defense's claim that the soldiers were dealt the death sentence by a legitimate court.

"A major question during the trial has been whether a non-governmental actor can establish its own courts in order to uphold law and order within the framework of a non-international armed conflict," presiding judge Tomas Zander said in a statement.

The Stockholm court concluded that may be possible under certain circumstances, but, in this case, there was proof that less than two days had passed between the capturing of the soldiers and the execution. That was one of the reasons why it was determined that the execution could not have been preceded by a fair trial where a legitimate court sentenced the soldiers to death.

The 46-year-old has been served a lifetime imprisonment sentence and expulsion. The Swedish Migration Agency has opened a case into recalling his permanent residence permit. However, due to the ongoing war in Syria, the expulsion is not likely to be carried out immediately. Enditem