The Syria Trials

Khaled al-Halabi might not be behind bars or on trial - but there have been huge developments in the justice for Syria space. Fritz heads back to the city where it all started, Raqqa, which has suffered hugely also since Halabi escaped. He finds out about the cases concerning the huge crimes the city and its citizens have suffered. He also looks at other current legal investigations and trials, from the financing of terrorism to me...

The wheels of justice can turn incredibly slowly. And when a case like Halabi's is slapped with so many setbacks, it can be difficult not to lose hope and faith in the justice process. But even as the Halabi case stalled, other trials were starting in Europe - including one against the Austrian intelligence officials who allegedly smuggled him into the country, paid his rent, and got him asylum...

The Syria Trials is a 75 Podcast ...

The case against Khaled al-Halabi wasn't progressing in Austria. The dossier was bursting with documentary evidence - but a strong case also needs vital witness testimony. As the investigators work to add this, France finally realise that a senior Syrian intelligence officer slipped through their fingers. By the time they let the Austrian authorities know, will Halabi still be in Austria?

The Syria Trials is a 75 Podcast productio...

Brigadier General Khaled al-Halabi had made it to Austria - thanks to the help, we thought, of the Austrian intelligence, called the BVT at the time. But as it turns out, there may have been another intelligence service helping the former Syrian intelligence officer escape France and set up a life in Austria...

The Syria Trials is a 75 Podcast production. This episode is hosted by Fritz Streiff, and produced by Sasha Edye-Lindner, ...

As Halabi waited in France to see if his asylum application had been accepted, a nest of legal investigators was stirring. Syrian and Western lawyers and investigators were coming together to see how they could begin to address the atrocity crimes being committed in Syria. But when they caught up with Halabi, he was no longer in France. The Disappearing General had once again disappeared... where had he gone?

The Syria Trials is a ...

Brigadier General Khaled al-Halabi managed to escape Syria and make it to Turkey in the Spring of 2013. But where did he go next? Fritz traces Halabi’s journey from Turkey to Europe - a journey that seems to have been relatively smooth compared to hundreds of thousands of other Syrians’, displaced by the war in Syria. Fritz speaks to some of those who were forced to flee, like Kenan Khadaj and Diana Khayyata, about their journeys t...

It's March 2013 and Raqqa is celebrating. Opposition forces have taken over the city and the Syrian regime is no longer in control. That means no more intelligence forces, no more security branches, and no more Head of State Security Khaled al-Halabi. As the citizens of Raqqa look towards a new future, where has Halabi escaped to?

The Syria Trials is a 75 Podcast production. This episode is hosted by Fritz Streiff, and produced by ...

On June 13th 2015, a diplomatic car made its way from France, through Germany and entered its final destination - Austria. The group in the car included members of the Austrian intelligence services - a man referred to only as White Milk. White Milk was, in fact, the cover name for a senior Syrian intelligence officer - who had worked within an intelligence system known for its violence and brutality.

So why was White Milk, real nam...

We’re in Syria. It’s the year 2000, and Bashar al-Assad has inherited the dictatorship from his father. Syrians who have been hoping that this new President means a freer, more liberal Syria are about to be sorely disappointed. It seems the intelligence services are still what really run Syria - and this is where Khaled al-Halabi is about to be posted. 

Fritz finds out about the centrality of the intelligence services in Syria...

Spring 2011. Following the wave of peaceful protests that has swept across the Middle East and North Africa, revolution has now come to Syria. The activists tell us what it was like to finally be able to shout out loud for their rights. Fritz hears about these joyful days - and how the regime quickly reacted with violence. General al-Halabi was the Head of General Intelligence Branch 335 when the uprising began. How did his branch ...

In this, the 11th and final episode of The Syria Trials, Fritz is joined once more by Kristina Kaghdo, presenter of the Arabic Series of our podcast, to discuss where we are now on the road to justice for Syria. What does the future hold? And what does justice really mean to Syrians, on a individual level?

With the voices of:

Rime Allaf.

A Syrian woman living in Syria.

A Syrian man living in Syria.

Ismail Alabdullah.

A Syrian man living ...

Bringing justice for Syria requires creativity. And whilst there has been enormous frustration at the lack of an international legal solution to the regime crimes committed in Syria, there has also been enormous innovation. Novel ways of working, new NGOs and much more. Episode 10 is about these innovations in the justice and accountability space. 

The Syria Trials is a 75 Podcast production. This episode is hosted by Fritz Str...

Witnesses are the lifeblood of criminal trials. But legal proceedings can be extremely difficult for witnesses. The retelling of experiences, which more often than not were traumatic, can lead to physical and emotional exhaustion, and the possibility of becoming retraumatised is forever looming. In this episode, we hear from a witness who gave her testimony at the Koblenz trial, and from the legal practitioners who put careful cons...

There are many men who carry out the Assad regime’s bidding - from soldiers in the army to the intelligence officers of the mukhabarat. But there's also another group, who do much of the regime’s dirty work, but who are only unofficially tied to the Assads. These men are known as the shabiha - which translates roughly from the Arabic to mean “ghosts”. But who exactly are these ghosts? Where did they come from and what crimes are th...

The suffering inflicted by the Assad regime reaches beyond the detainees held inside their intelligence branches and prisons. In withholding information about their fate, families are left in limbo - with no knowledge if their loved ones are dead or alive. This episode is about those families.

The Syria Trials is a 75 Podcast production. This episode is hosted by Fritz Streiff and produced by Sasha Edye-Lindner, with editorial suppo...

What position is the Syrian regime really in today? How does it really function? And how, after 11 years of war, and with sanctions placed on the country, is the regime making money? We look at the attempts to stop the normalisation of the Assad regime, and the cases that attempt to hold it accountable for more recent crimes.

The Syria Trials is a 75 Podcast production. This episode is hosted by Fritz Streiff. It was produced by Sas...

The violence that Syrians have witnessed and suffered since 2011 did not come out of nowhere - there is a history, a background and a basis to it. And so, if we want to better understand what has happened in the country in the past 11 years, we need to travel further back in time - to the beginnings of Assad family rule in Syria. In this episode, we’re uncovering how the pillars of the Assad regime were constructed. 

The Syria ...

In the early hours of the 21st August 2013, the Syrian regime crossed perhaps the biggest red line in the course of the war in Syria - and dropped chemical weapons on Al-Ghouta, in the suburbs of Damascus. We look at that night, and the efforts of activists, documenters and lawyers to hold the perpetrators accountable.

Please take care when listening.

The Syria Trials is a 75 Podcast production. This episode is hosted by Fritz Streif...