Salem Al-Salem faces landmark trial over alleged role in crackdown on protests in Damascus in 2011
A former Syrian colonel has appeared in a London court to face charges of crimes against humanity in the first prosecution of its kind in England and Wales.
Salem Al-Salem is charged with murder and torture, crimes allegedly committed during the Syrian government’s violent crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in Damascus in 2011.
Al-Salem, who fled to the UK, is alleged to have played a leading role in the violence at the start of the uprising against Bashar al-Assad, which led to a civil war and the eventual overthrow of Assad’s regime in 2024.
The 58-year-old faces three counts of murder as a crime against humanity, three of torture and one of conduct ancillary to murder.
