NAN-F-60
Imprisonment
Stockholm, Feb. 16, 2017 (dpa/NAN) A Swedish court on Thursday sentenced a Syrian man to life imprisonment over his involvement in the 2012 killing of seven captive Syrian government soldiers.
The seven government soldiers were shot in May 2012 in the North-Western province of Idlib.
Husaim Omar Sakhanh was one of the members of the group that shot the soldiers, the Stockholm District Court ruled.
It said the 46-year-old joined an armed Islamist group, Firqat Suleiman el-Muqatila, shortly before the killings.
The court rejected Sakhanh’s claim that a legitimate court had ordered the executions, noting that the seven were killed two days after their capture and there was no fair trial.
The crime violated international law, the Swedish court said.
Before being shot, the victims were forced to kneel, several with their hands tied behind their backs. Some appeared to have been badly beaten, the court said.
Evidence included a video clip of the event. It was published in 2013 by the New York Times, triggering a police probe in Sweden.
Sakhanh, who has since 2013 lived in Sweden, where he has asylum, was to be deported after serving his sentence, the court said.
His attorney told Swedish Radio an appeal was likely.
dpa/NAN)
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Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole/Sadiya Hamza