This week in court, the main accused Anwar R. reacted to the accusations against him with a statement that his lawyers read to the court. His defense in short: there was no torture when I was in charge, later others did it, I tried to help but couldn't do more, and then I fled the country.

How did this go down in court and how did the public gallery react to his statement? Listen to Karam and Fritz discuss his lengthy and detailed statement. And get comments from survivors of Branch 251 and their lawyer.

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Some additional sources on this episode and the trial here:

• @hannahel711 reporting from the court in Koblenz this week: https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/tribunals/national-tribunals/44351-raslan-trial-germany-i-did-not-order-torture-or-support-it.html
• NPR's @deborahamos with an update on the trial: https://www.npr.org/2020/05/21/859991380/syrian-war-crimes-trial-resumes-in-germany?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social
• @ECCHR Berlin hearing summaries can be found here: https://ecchr.eu/en/case/trial-monitoring-first-trial-worldwide-on-torture-in-syria/…
• Weekly monitoring reports by the Syria Justice and Accountability Centre (SJAC): https://syriaaccountability.org/topic/trial-monitoring/updates/…

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