German prosecutors order the arrest of a Syrian on charges of war crimes and another suspected of belonging to ISIS

The Federal Public Prosecution in Germany ordered the arrest in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate of a Syrian man on suspicion of committing war crimes in his country.

The man is credited with having, in 2015, as a member of an opposition militia, arrested and killed people he believed were affiliated with the Syrian government headed by the ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The accused Syrian citizen was presented to the investigating judge at the Federal Supreme Court in Karlsruhe, who ordered him to be placed in pretrial detention pending investigation, according to what a spokeswoman for the highest prosecution authority in Germany said.

The Federal Public Prosecution explained today, Wednesday (September 30, 2026), that the man was initially affiliated with the government armed forces in Syria, before he joined as a commander in one of the opposition militias in 2012 at the latest. According to the statement, in 2015, the accused, together with others, detained three people believed to belong to the Syrian government. The statement also stated: “The detainees were forced to confess to launching attacks against the accused and other members of his militia*, and the accused later executed them by shooting them in the head*.

Members of the Criminal Investigation Office branch in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany, arrested the Syrian accused this morning in the city of Neuwied. The Federal Public Prosecution charges him with committing war crimes against individuals by killing them.

Belonging to ISIS and fighting in its ranks

In another case, the Federal Public Prosecution in Germany ordered the arrest in the state of Hesse of a man believed to belong to the "Islamic State" (ISIS) organization.

The man is attributed to having joined the organization in Iraq by the beginning of 2016, at the latest, and that he participated as a fighter in the organization's ranks until the spring of 2017. The highest prosecution authority in Germany accuses the man of belonging to a terrorist organization abroad. Members of the Federal Office for Criminal Investigation arrested the accused in the Waldeck-Frankenberg region in northern Hesse on Wednesday morning.

The accused was subsequently brought before the investigating judge at the Federal Supreme Court in Karlsruhe, where he read out the arrest warrant and ordered him to be placed in pretrial detention pending investigation.