Action Group – Sweden
A court in Stockholm, Sweden, today sentenced Mahmoud Sweidan, a former leader of the Free Palestine Movement, to life imprisonment after convicting him of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during events in the Yarmouk camp in Damascus in 2013 and 2014.
According to the court, the defendant was found guilty of systematic torture and the deliberate killing of civilians trapped inside the camp during the period when armed groups controlled the area.
Evidence presented during the trial indicated that Sweidan played a leading role in carrying out grave violations of international humanitarian law.
The Swedish Public Prosecution Service had charged Sweidan with several war crimes, including the arrest of civilians at checkpoints inside the Yarmouk camp and their subsequent handover to Syrian security forces, where some were tortured, resulting in the deaths of some, according to the case file.
The charges also included another incident dating back to early 2013, when the accused was believed to have been working at a security checkpoint inside the camp, and participated in similar arrests of civilians who were handed over to the security services of the then-defunct regime.
For her part, Prosecutor Ulrika Pentelius Egelrud explained that the crimes were classified as serious due to the deaths they caused, in addition to the severe suffering and inhumane treatment endured by the victims.
This case is part of a series of trials held in Sweden in recent years targeting individuals residing within its borders suspected of involvement in serious violations of international law during the Syrian conflict, under the principle of universal jurisdiction.
It is worth noting that Mahmoud Sweidan had been in pretrial detention in Sweden since mid-2024 pending investigation, before his sentencing today.