Case: Mohammad A. -

Mohammad A., a Syrian national, is accused of having founded a combat unit of 50 people in the fall of 2012 in Damascus. With this armed combat unit, he allegedly joined the terrorist organisation "Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades (AR)" in November 2012. This group is said to have been a military organisation with around 15,000 members that existed between the summer of 2012 and early 2014 and aimed at violently overthrowing the Syrian government. According to investigators, the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades repeatedly carried out explosive attacks on state-run facilities in Syria. Mohammad A. who is said to have been the leader of his combat unit, allegedly planned and commanded an attack on a building of the Syrian security forces in Yarmouk, Damascus, in March 2013. Mohammad A. is further said to have defected from this organisation in late 2013 to join another terrorist organisation, namely ISIS. He was allegedly closely associated with the local leaders of ISIS and commanded around 200 fighters. Also in late 2013, Mohammad A. and his combat unit allegedly abducted two opponents of ISIS in Damascus. According to investigators, the victims were held in an ISIS detention facility and in mid-January 2014 executed alongside ten more detainees. Mohammad A. was arrested in Germany in early March 2023 on the suspicion of membership in a terrorist organisation and is facing an indictment accusing him of several counts of war crimes of hostage taking in addition to membership in at least two terrorist organisations.