An ex-Syrian general and a former senior Syrian police officer went on trial in Vienna on Monday, accused of torturing opponents of the now-deposed regime of Bashar al-Assad.
The two are accused "of having, on numerous occasions, ordered or failed to oppose the mistreatment of members of a protest movement," according to prosecutors.
The defendants, a former brigadier general in the Syrian intelligence services and a former head of the investigations office of the local criminal police, are said to have committed the crimes in Raqa between April 2011 and March 2013.
Several similar cases relating to crimes committed during the Syrian civil war have been tried in other countries, including Germany, France and Sweden.
Brigadier General Khaled al-Halabi, 63, who has been in pre-trial detention since 2024, will plead not guilty, his lawyer Timo Gerersdorfer told reporters before the trial started.
