Germany updates: Syrian 'torture' doctor sentenced to life

Germany has unveiled a temporary memorial in Berlin honoring Polish victims of World War II, nearly 86 years after the Nazi invasion of Poland launched the conflict.

"This memorial is necessary because we Germans are far too little aware of the disaster, pain and destruction that Germany brought upon Poland during World War II," said former foreign minister Heiko Maas at Monday’s ceremony.

The commemorative stone stands near the Chancellery in central Berlin. Maas, now president of the German Poland Institute, said it should serve as a signal that "Poland is important for us," adding that "we are aware of our guilt and accept our responsibility."

According to the German government, more than 5 million Polish citizens were killed between 1939 and 1945, including around 3 million Jews.

The temporary site is expected to be replaced by a permanent memorial and a German-Polish House, pending approval by the Bundestag.

German investigators have taken down one of the largest and oldest criminal platforms on the so-called darknet, prosecutors in Wiesbaden and Frankfurt said on Monday.

The domain, known as Archetyp Market, was reportedly a major trading platform for drugs, with about 612,000 customer accounts, 3,200 sellers and a turnover of at least €250 million ($290 million).

The investigation saw over 300 officials carry out 25 house searches in several European Union countries across several days. A suspected site administrator, a 30-year-old German man, was arrested at his home in Barcelona, Spain, last week, while servers in the Netherlands were turned off by police.

Further raids targeting website moderators and sellers reportedly took place in Romania, Sweden and Germany – in Lower Saxony, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg, to be precise.

The entire operation recovered dozens of mobile phones, computers, hard drives and cash worth around €7.8 million ($9 million).

German investigators on Monday raided the house of a suspected supporter of a far-right organization whose plans to topple the German government in a violent coup d'etat were exposed in 2022.

The residence near the city of Rostock in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania reportedly belonged to a 54-year-old man linked to the so-called Reichsbürger movement, which doesn't acknowledge the authority or even the existence of the Federal Republic of Germany.

The man, who has not been arrested and whose precise whereabouts is unknown, is suspected by prosecutors of having attended meetings and expressed readiness to take part in a coup. He is accused of supporting a terrorist organization and of aiding the preparation of treasonous activities.

According to German authorities, the so-called Kaiserreichsgruppe planned to violently topple the German government and replace it with an authoritarian regime modeled on the former German Empire (or Kaiserreich, hence the name), which collapsed in 1918 following Germany's defeat in the First World War.

The coup was reportedly supposed to begin with the abduction of former Health Minister Karl Lauterbach , who regularly featured in far-right conspiracy theories due his prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Several ringleaders – who referred to themselves as "united patriots" – were sentenced to prison sentences of up to eight years in Koblenz in March, while further trials took place in Hamburg and Munich.

A court in Frankfurt has sentenced a Syrian doctor to life in prison after finding him guilty of torture, murder and other crimes against humanity committed under the dictatorship of Bashar Assad.

Presiding judge Christoph Koller said defendant Alaa M. had "severely injured nine people and killed two more" while serving in a military hospital in the Syrian city of Homs from 2011 through 2012.

Koller said the doctor had been "part of a brutal reaction by Assad's dictatorial, unjust regime" and added: "Above all, the accused enjoyed harming people that seemed inferior and low-value to him."

The judge also revealed that the Assad regime had, prior to its toppling in December 2024, attempted to influence the trial. The court suspected that non-public information had been transmitted back to Syria and that relatives of witnesses had been threatened.

"No torturer, regardless of where they commit their crimes, can expect to escape justice," said Koller.

M. had lived in Germany for ten years and had worked as an orthopedic surgeon in several clinics, most recently in the central state of Hesse. He was arrested in summer 2020 after some of his victims recognized him from a TV documentary about Homs.

Monday's ruling was not the first in Germany concerning state torture in Syria. In January 2022, a court in Koblenz sentenced a former Syrian secret service official to life in prison and an accomplice to four-and-a-half years.

Last month, a Syrian man was arrested in the southwestern state of Rhineland-Palatinate on suspicion of having been involved in torture in his role as a prison guard. He remains in custody.

Bayern Munich got their Club World Cup campaign underway with a thumping 10-0 win over Auckland City in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Sunday.

The game between the German champions and the semiprofessional outfit from New Zealand quickly proved to be a mismatch as Bayern flew into a 6-0 halftime lead, before adding four more after the break.

"It's difficult to accept too much praise for such a game," admitted head coach Vincent Kompany after Jamal Musiala scored a hat-trick and Thomas Müller, Michael Olise and Kingsley Coman all scored twice.

"The most important thing for me was that the players took it seriously," continued Kompany. "There will be tougher challenges to come." Bayern next face Argentinian giants Boca Juniors in Miami on Friday before playing Portuguese side Benfica.

During the game, some of the traveling Bayern supporters expressed criticism of world football's governing body and tournament organizers FIFA.

"Ten years [on from] Baur au Lac, world football is more poorly governed than [ever] before!" read a banner unfurled behind the goal, referring to the luxury Swiss hotel in which several high-ranking FIFA executives were arrested on corruption charges in May 2015.

The political circumstances surrounding FIFA's newly expanded Club World Cup, including its Qatari sponsorship, Saudi-funded broadcasting arrangements and FIFA President Gianni Infantino's proximity to US President Donald Trump, have kept the organization firmly in the sights of critics.

Back on the pitch, Borussia Dortmund begin their campaign on Tuesday when they face Brazilian giants Fluminense.

Germany's all-inclusive, nationwide public transport pass, known as the Deutschlandticket, has proven a popular product since its permanent introduction in May 2023. But its financing continues to be a subject of political contention.

Around 13 million people subscribe to the Deutschlandticket, which allows for unlimited travel on all regional trains and buses across Germany – with the exception of high-speed inter-city trains (ICE, IC, EC).

It currently costs €58 ($67) a month, up from €49 in 2024.

The ticket is jointly financed by the federal German government in Berlin and the 16 state governments to the tune of €3 billion ($3.5bn) per year, money which compensates regional public transport enterprises whose own travel tickets had previously been significantly more expensive.

The current financing is guaranteed by law for 2025 and the new coalition government has committed to the Deutschlandticket beyond that, but its future financing remains unclear. Some state governments want to reduce their contributions, but the transport companies argue that the current subsidies aren't enough.

"Given the current strain on the public purse, the states can't afford to contribute more than €1.5 billion per year," said a spokesperson for the Bavarian Transport Ministry, calling on Berlin to increase its share.

"It's important that we agree on a clear financing plan to provide planning security," said Oliver Krischer (Green Party), the regional transport minister of Germany's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia.

"The constant discussions about the future of the Deutschlandticket and its cost are counterproductive and don't help us move forward," added his counterpart from the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg, Winfried Hermann (also of the Green Party).

A court ruling is expected in Frankfurt on Monday in the case of a Syrian doctor accused of crimes against humanity.

German state prosecutors have accused Alaa M. of deliberately torturing and murdering prisoners at a military hospitals in the Syrian cities of Damascus and Homs under the dictatorial regime of former President Bashar Assad.

The crimes, which were allegedly committed on 18 occasions between 2011 and 2012, are said to have included dousing a teenage boy's genitals with alcohol before setting fire to them.

One former inmate and witness at the trial, which began in 2022, said he had been forced to carry the bodies of patients who had died after being injected by M., according to Der Spiegel news magazine. Another described the Damascus site where he had been detained as a "slaughterhouse."

M. arrived in Germany in 2015 on a visa for highly skilled workers and continued to practice medicine in Germany, working as an orthopedic doctor until he was arrested in June 2020. He denies all charges against him, saying he was too afraid of the military police "in control" at the hospital to speak out.

"I felt sorry for them, but I couldn't say anything, or it would have been me instead of the patient," he told the court.

Prosecutors have called for a life-long prison sentence, while the defense has demanded acquittal.

Germany has tried several supporters of Assad's regime under the legal principle of "universal jurisdiction," which allows for the prosecution of serious crimes even if they were committed abroad.

The first such global trial over state-sponsored torture in Syria under the Assad regime opened in the western German city of Koblenz in 2020 and resulted in a former colonel in the Syrian army being sentenced to life in jail in 2022.

Guten Tag! Welcome to DW's coverage of developments in Germany on Monday, June 16.

A court ruling is expected in Frankfurt today in the case of a Syrian doctor accused of torture and murder under the former Assad regime.

Elsewhere, there is uncertainty over the future financing of Germany's nationwide Deutschlandticket train pass.

And in sport, Bayern Munich got their Club World Cup campaign underway on Sunday with a thumping win.