The Syria Trials

On June 13th 2015, a diplomatic car made its way from France, through Germany and entered its final destination - Austria. The group in the car included members of the Austrian intelligence services - a man referred to only as White Milk. White Milk was, in fact, the cover name for a senior Syrian intelligence officer - who had worked within an intelligence system known for its violence and brutality.

So why was White Milk, real name Khaled al-Halabi,  effectively being smuggled between European countries?

Join host Fritz Streiff for the first episode of Season 2 of The Syria Trials - The Disappearing General. Over 11 episodes, we’ll tell the story of Halabi’s work within the Syrian intelligence system, his role in violently suppressing the peaceful Revolution and his escape to Europe, after his city fell out of regime control. Who really is Halabi? And why hasn’t he been arrested yet? 

The Syria Trials is a 75 Podcast production. This episode is hosted by Fritz Streiff, and produced by Sasha Edye-Lindner, with research and editorial support from Mais Katt. The narrative consultant for the Season was Robert Nicholson. The voiceovers were provided by Cyril Nehmé, Muhammad Bakri and Amr Hussien. It was mixed by Tobias Withers.

Support for our podcast comes from German Federal Foreign Office funds that are provided by the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen IFA’s Zivik Funding Programme.

If you’d like to find out more about our podcast, head to our website https://75podcasts.org/ Here you'll find an archive of all our episodes with their transcripts, as well as our other productions.

Welcome to Season 2 of The Syria Trials: The Disappearing General. This season, we're following the story of Brigadier General Khaled al-Halabi - the highest-ranking Syrian intelligence officer known to have made it to Europe. But who really is al-Halabi? And why has he not been arrested yet? Join us this season to follow his story.

In this, the 11th and final episode of The Syria Trials, Fritz is joined once more by Kristina Kaghdo, presenter of the Arabic Series of our podcast, to discuss where we are now on the road to justice for Syria. What does the future hold? And what does justice really mean to Syrians, on a individual level?

With the voices of:

Rime Allaf.

A Syrian woman living in Syria.

A Syrian man living in Syria.

Ismail Alabdullah.

A Syrian man living in Turkey.

Leila Sibai.

Ibrahim Olabi.

Ugur Ungor.

Ammar Daba.

Joumana Seif.

Mariana Karkoutly.

Thank you for listening to the first season of The Syria Trials. Stay tuned for Season 2, coming in the fall of 2023.

The Syria Trials is a 75 Podcast production. This episode is hosted by Fritz Streiff and Kristina Kaghdo, and produced by Sasha Edye-Lindner, with editorial support from Mais Katt. The voiceovers were provided by Nama'a Qudah, Saleem Salameh and Maksim Abdul Latif. It was mixed by Tobias Withers.

Support for our podcast comes from German Federal Foreign Office funds that are provided by the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen IFA’s Zivik Funding Programme.

If you can't get enough of our podcast, head to our website https://75podcasts.org/ Here you'll find an archive of all our episodes with their transcripts, as well as our other productions. 

Bringing justice for Syria requires creativity. And whilst there has been enormous frustration at the lack of an international legal solution to the regime crimes committed in Syria, there has also been enormous innovation. Novel ways of working, new NGOs and much more. Episode 10 is about these innovations in the justice and accountability space. 

The Syria Trials is a 75 Podcast production. This episode is hosted by Fritz Streiff and produced by Sasha Edye-Lindner, with editorial support from Mais Katt. The stringer in Syria was Muhammad Daboul. It was mixed by Tobias Withers.

Support for our podcast comes from German Federal Foreign Office funds that are provided by the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen IFA’s Zivik Funding Programme.

If you can't get enough of our podcast, head to our website https://75podcasts.org/ Here you'll find an archive of all our episodes with their transcripts, as well as our other productions. 

Useful links:

Syrian Archive - https://syrianarchive.org/

Mnemonic - https://mnemonic.org/ 

White Helmets - https://www.syriacivildefence.org/en/ 

CIJA - https://cijaonline.org/

IIIM - https://iiim.un.org/ 

People’s Tribunal - https://ptmurderofjournalists.org/syria-case-hearing-nabil-al-sharbaji/

Enab Baladi - https://english.enabbaladi.net/

CJA - https://cja.org/what-we-do/litigation/colvin-v-syria/ 

Witnesses are the lifeblood of criminal trials. But legal proceedings can be extremely difficult for witnesses. The retelling of experiences, which more often than not were traumatic, can lead to physical and emotional exhaustion, and the possibility of becoming retraumatised is forever looming. In this episode, we hear from a witness who gave her testimony at the Koblenz trial, and from the legal practitioners who put careful consideration for witnesses at the heart of the case building work that they do.

The Syria Trials is a 75 Podcast production. This episode is hosted by Fritz Streiff. It was produced by Sasha Edye-Lindner, with editorial support from Mais Katt. The male voiceover was provided by Hosam Omran. The episode was mixed by Tobias Withers.

Support for our podcast comes from German Federal Foreign Office funds that are provided by the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen IFA’s Zivik Funding Programme.

To find out more about our podcast, visit our website https://75podcasts.org/. Here you'll find an archive of all our episodes with their transcripts, as well as our other productions.

Useful links:

https://www.huquqyat.org/

https://humanityinaction.org/person/mariana-karkoutly/

https://www.ecchr.eu/en/international-crimes-and-accountability/

There are many men who carry out the Assad regime’s bidding - from soldiers in the army to the intelligence officers of the mukhabarat. But there's also another group, who do much of the regime’s dirty work, but who are only unofficially tied to the Assads. These men are known as the shabiha - which translates roughly from the Arabic to mean “ghosts”. But who exactly are these ghosts? Where did they come from and what crimes are they responsible for?

The Syria Trials is a 75 Podcast production. This episode is hosted by Fritz Streiff. It was produced by Sasha Edye-Lindner, with editorial support from Mais Katt. The voice over was provided by Ahmad Al Muhammad. Translation was by Alaa Hassan. This episode was mixed by Tobias Withers.

Support for our podcast comes from German Federal Foreign Office funds that are provided by the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen IFA’s Zivik Funding Programme.

To find out more about our podcast, visit our website https://75podcasts.org/. Here you'll find an archive of all our episodes with their transcripts, as well as our other productions.

Useful links:

https://www.instagram.com/ammarodaba/?hl=en

https://www.ungor.nl/

https://en.qantara.de/authors/tarek-azizeh

https://mobile.twitter.com/tarekazizeh 

https://trialinternational.org/latest-post/mouafak-al-d/

https://www.prosecutionservice.nl/latest/news/2022/08/12/alleged-militia-member-linked-to-syrian-regime-to-remain-in-custody-on-suspicion-of-war-crimes

The suffering inflicted by the Assad regime reaches beyond the detainees held inside their intelligence branches and prisons. In withholding information about their fate, families are left in limbo - with no knowledge if their loved ones are dead or alive. This episode is about those families.

The Syria Trials is a 75 Podcast production. This episode is hosted by Fritz Streiff and produced by Sasha Edye-Lindner, with editorial support from Mais Katt. Translation was by Alaa Hassan. This episode was mixed by Tobias Withers.

Support for our podcast comes from German Federal Foreign Office funds that are provided by the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen IFA’s Zivik Funding Programme.

If you can't get enough of our podcast, head to our website https://75podcasts.org/ Here you'll find an archive of all our episodes with their transcripts, as well as our other productions.

Useful links:

https://www.caesarfamilies.org/

https://www.fidh.org/en/issues/litigation/q-a-on-the-dabbagh-case-french-judges-issue-3-international-arrest

What position is the Syrian regime really in today? How does it really function? And how, after 11 years of war, and with sanctions placed on the country, is the regime making money? We look at the attempts to stop the normalisation of the Assad regime, and the cases that attempt to hold it accountable for more recent crimes.

The Syria Trials is a 75 Podcast production. This episode is hosted by Fritz Streiff. It was produced by Sasha Edye-Lindner, with editorial support from Mais Katt. The voice over was provided by Maksim Abdul Latif. Translation was by Alaa Hassan. This episode was mixed by Tobias Withers.

Support for our podcast comes from German Federal Foreign Office funds that are provided by the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen IFA’s Zivik Funding Programme.

To find out more about our podcast, visit our website https://75podcasts.org/. Here you'll find an archive of all our episodes with their transcripts, as well as our other productions.

Useful links:

ECCHR Jamil Hassan case - https://www.ecchr.eu/en/case/german-authorities-issue-arrest-warrant-against-jamil-hassan-head-of-the-syrian-air-force-intelligence/

https://www.ecchr.eu/en/case/survivors-sexual-violence-by-syrian-intelligence-services-are-crimes-against-humanity/

Der Spiegel Captagon investigation - https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/syrian-drug-smuggling-the-assad-regime-would-not-survive-loss-of-captagon-revenues-a-b4302356-e562-4088-95a1-45d557a3952a

The violence that Syrians have witnessed and suffered since 2011 did not come out of nowhere - there is a history, a background and a basis to it. And so, if we want to better understand what has happened in the country in the past 11 years, we need to travel further back in time - to the beginnings of Assad family rule in Syria. In this episode, we’re uncovering how the pillars of the Assad regime were constructed. 

The Syria Trials is a 75 Podcast production. This episode is hosted by Fritz Streiff with Kristina Kaghdo. It was produced by Sasha Edye-Lindner, with editorial support from Mais Katt. The voice over was provided by Maksim Abdul Latif. Translation was by Alaa Hassan. This episode was mixed by Tobias Withers.

Support for our podcast comes from German Federal Foreign Office funds that are provided by the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen IFA’s Zivik Funding Programme.

To find out more about our podcast, visit our website https://75podcasts.org/. Here you'll find an archive of all our episodes with their transcripts, as well as our other productions. 

Useful links:

People’s Tribunal for the Murder of Journalists:

https://ptmurderofjournalists.org/ 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soZj8jWEaEQ&t=22763s 

Sam Dagher: https://samdagherjournalist.com/ 

Rime Allaf: https://www.rime-allaf.com/ 

Rifaat al-Assad case: https://trialinternational.org/latest-post/rifaat-al-assads-return-to-syria-a-severe-blow-to-the-fight-against-impunity/   

Archive clips:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsyQ442Xvnw 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9yPj6PUH8g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Du75qd8Pgk&t=239s 

In the early hours of the 21st August 2013, the Syrian regime crossed perhaps the biggest red line in the course of the war in Syria - and dropped chemical weapons on Al-Ghouta, in the suburbs of Damascus. We look at that night, and the efforts of activists, documenters and lawyers to hold the perpetrators accountable.

Please take care when listening.

The Syria Trials is a 75 Podcast production. This episode is hosted by Fritz Streiff, and produced by Sasha Edye-Lindner, with editorial support from Mais Katt. Translation was by Remi Alanini and the voiceover artist was Alaa Hassan. It was mixed by Tobias Withers.

Support for our podcast comes from German Federal Foreign Office funds that are provided by the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen IFA’s Zivik Funding Programme.

If you can't get enough of our podcast, visit our website https://75podcasts.org/. Here you'll find an archive of all our episodes with their transcripts, and our other productions. 

Useful links:

https://www.vdc-sy.info/index.php/en/about 

https://www.justiceinitiative.org/litigation/french-criminal-investigation-of-chemical-weapons-attacks-in-syria 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52-9vVdPmHY&ab_channel=DWNews 

https://scm.bz/en/missing-and-killed-scm-members/razan-zaitouneh 

https://trialinternational.org/latest-post/islam-alloush/

https://chemicalweapons.gppi.net/podcast/