A Vienna court on Monday convicted two former Syrian officials of abuse and sexual coercion of opponents of then-leader Bashar al-Assad, sentencing men whose presence in Austria traces to a covert Israeli intelligence operation.
Former senior Assad regime officers convicted and imprisoned on torture charges in Austria
An Austrian court on Monday sentenced two former Assad regime officials, including one identified as ex-General Intelligence Directorate chief Khaled al-Halabi, to eight years in prison… pic.twitter.com/lDqOBKZkRa
— Radio Free Syria (@Radio_FreeSyria) July 6, 2026
Khaled al-Halabi, 63, a former brigadier general who headed Syria’s General Intelligence Directorate (GID) in Raqqa from 2011 to 2013, was found guilty of torture, aggravated bodily harm, aggravated coercion, and sexual coercion against 21 individuals.
Former Mossad agent & Assad’s General Halabi was sentenced today to 8 years in prison in Austria.
The former head of #Raqqa State Security was convicted of “torture, aggravated coercion, sexual coercion and multiple counts of grievous bodily harm”.
As his sentence includes time… https://t.co/FP5ReCsq0B pic.twitter.com/devmc08vey
— Qalaat Al Mudiq (@QalaatAlMudiq) July 6, 2026
A second defendant, former police Lieutenant Colonel Musab Abu Rukbah, 54, nicknamed “the Angel of Death” by prosecutors, was convicted on the same charges except torture. Both were sentenced to eight years in prison.
More than a dozen victims testified over the month-long trial, describing beatings, electric shocks, water-based torture, and the “flying carpet,” a hinged wooden board used to fold a victim’s body at the waist. One witness said al-Halabi interrogated him as cables delivered electric shocks to the soles of his feet.
Al-Halabi denied all charges and argued he had acted under orders. The presiding judge rejected that defense directly. “Of course you were actively aware,” the judge said.
Austrian prosecutors confirmed al-Halabi entered Austria in 2015 through “Operation White Milk,” a covert arrangement in which the country’s former domestic intelligence service, the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz und Terrorismusbekämpfung (BVT), transported him at the request of Israel’s Mossad.
Al-Halabi had been functioning as a double agent for Mossad before fleeing Raqqa when the Free Syrian Army seized the city in 2013.
The BVT operation was overseen by Martin Weiss, a former agency official now a fugitive in Dubai and wanted for suspected links to Jan Marsalek, a fugitive Austrian spy authorities believe is in Moscow.
Both verdicts can be appealed. Syrian officials have also faced war crimes prosecutions in France, Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland.
