VIENNA — A convicted Syrian ex-police chief, sentenced to eight years in an Austrian court for torture, has apparently slipped back to his homeland, leaving victims and rights advocates stunned.
Mussab Abou R., once the head of criminal police in Raqqa under the regime of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, was found guilty in early July alongside a former intelligence officer of systematic torture of 21 civilians. Yet, while his co-defendant remains in custody awaiting appeal, Abou R. walked free and, according to new reports, has already crossed into Syria, according to Austrian Press Agency.
Citing a private investigator, the Austrian magazine “News” reported that Abou R. entered Syria via the al-Salameh border crossing from Turkey on July 29. He is said to have returned to his hometown near the Golan Heights in southern Syria, where he was welcomed as a hero. His family posted on social media that they had received their “honorable son” after “Allah granted him release from prison in Austria.”
The case has exposed a gap in Austria’s justice system. Though convicted, Abou R. was never placed in pre-trial detention. The Vienna Higher Regional Court (OLG) had earlier ruled there was no flight risk, noting he had lived in Austria since 2014, his asylum process was suspended pending trial, and his family resided locally. Prosecutors did not request renewed detention after the verdict, citing the OLG’s decision and lack of concrete evidence he would flee.
But victims say the system failed them. One survivor, arrested 15 years ago for protesting against Assad in Raqqa, told “News” he was “shocked and disappointed.” He called it a “failure of the Austrian state” that a man found guilty of torture could still leave the country.
Human rights lawyer Tatiana Urdanetta-Wittek, representing 18 victims through the Centre for the Enforcement of Human Rights, said Austrian authorities must now cooperate with Syrian officials. “The witnesses are appalled that something like this can happen,” she said. Still, she added, the verdict retains its symbolic power.
For now, Abou R. is free in Syria. In Austria, the question lingers: how did a convicted torturer walk away?
