Sun 12 July 2020:
Forty-nine faceless figures stand on the lawn outside a German courthouse, facing the windows of a courtroom behind which two suspected members of Syrian president Bashar Assad’s security services are standing trial for torture and sexual assault.
The figures, part of an art installation called The Muted Demonstration, are wearing jeans, shirts and jackets that formerly belonged to victims of torture, their creator, Syrian artist Khaled Barakeh, told Reuters on Wednesday.
Syrian artist Khaled Barakeh in center
They stand silently with arms raised, to be seen from within the courtroom by participants in what lawyers say is the first trial for alleged war crimes by Syrian government agents.
Campaigners have hailed the process as a first step towards justice for thousands of Syrians who say they were tortured in regime facilities, after attempts to establish an international tribunal for Syria failed.
When asked why he chose to create 49 figures, rather than a larger or smaller number, Berlin-based Barakeh, 44, told Reuters that was what his budget allowed.
Syria torture trial
Two suspected members of President Bashar al-Assad’s security services had charges of torture and sexual assault read out against them in a German court, in what lawyers say is the first trial for war crimes by Syrian government agents.
Anwar R., a former intelligence officer who applied for asylum in Germany six years ago after leaving Syria, is charged with 58 murders in a Damascus prison where prosecutors say at least 4,000 opposition activists were tortured in 2011 and 2012.
Grey haired, with a bald patch and wearing a moustache, glasses and a dark sweater, he sat calmly behind a glass cubicle erected under hygiene rules adopted by the court against the coronavirus outbreak. The charges read out included at least one rape and multiple sexual assaults.
The second suspect, Eyad A., 43, charged with facilitating the torture of at least 30 opposition activists arrested after an anti-Assad demonstration in 2011.
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