The Israeli Spy and Asylum Seeker in Austria

In recent years, the issue of trying people for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Syria has come to increasing public attention, most notably with the conviction in Germany of Anwar Raslan, a former intelligence official who defected from the Syrian government at the end of 2012. Raslan received a life sentence for his conviction.

While many felt that the trial and conviction were a victory for accountability, it does raise the question of whether people will be given the incentive to defect if they face prosecution for their past crimes and deeds. Perhaps even more complicated are cases involving those who have served as agents for foreign intelligence agencies and prior to and during their capacity of supplying information for a time may have engaged in unsavoury actions and crimes (for comparison, see the case of Manaf al-Deiri nearly three years ago- who worked as an American asset inside Islamic State’s southern Syria affiliate called Jaysh Khalid, but also committed war crimes prior to his time inside Jaysh Khalid).

Currently in Austria there is a trial for five officials- four of them intelligence officials, the fifth an asylum official- accused of misconduct in dealing with the granting of asylum status to a former Syrian security official who acted as a spy for the Mossad, supplying it information on the Syrian military and intelligence apparatuses. He is also accused of having committed war crimes.

Below is my translation of a local Austrian media report (Wiener Zeitung) about the matter.