The German Government is planning to change the procedural and substantive legal framework on international criminal law in Germany, with an expert hearing having taken placed on 31 January 2024 before the German Parliament’s (Deutscher Bundestag) Legal Affairs Committee. One aspect appears to have been totally neglected by the current draft proposal: the issue of functional immunity from foreign criminal jurisdiction in case of core crime charges. In this post, I highlight an ambiguity regarding the personal scope of functional immunity arising from German case law which the German Government and Parliament should take the opportunity to clarify with the current reform proposal. This is particularly important given that the ambiguity appears to have traveled to other jurisdictions as illustrated by the case of Ziada v. Netherlands.
Why Germany is expanding reach in universal jurisdiction prosecutions
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Journalists look to Germany for justice in Khashoggi killing
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February 26, 2021 10:21:23 am
The Higher Regional Court in Koblenz, Germany, on Wednesday convicted former Syrian General Intelligence Directorate (GID) officer Eyad A. of aiding and abetting torture and deprivation of liberty as crimes against humanity committed against 30 persons. Eyad received a sentence of four years and six months in prison.
The 30 persons, who were all civilians, had been participating in anti-government protests in Syria’s Douma in 2011 when they were rounded up and sent in a bus to Branch 251, or the al-Khatib detention center in Damascus. At Branch 251, they suffered grave physical, emotional and psychological abuse, in addition to being subjected to inhumane and degrading conditions. The court found that a widespread and systematic attack was carried out against them. It stated that “Eyad A. had already known about the regular and systematic torture in the prison of department 251 when the demonstrators were arrested and had accepted the torture of t