He arrived from Syria. He was recognised as a refugee in Berlin “for humanitarian reasons”.
Now he is on trial as an alleged war criminal: the Federal Prosecutor General’s Office accuses Moafak D. (55) of seven murders and three attempted murders!
In 2014, he allegedly fired a bazooka at people waiting for food distributed by a UN relief organisation. Two survivors (48, 57) of the explosion on March 23, 2014 in the Al Yarmouk camp in Damascus are joint plaintiffs before the Berlin Superior Court. They also now live in Germany.
The defendant hides from the photographers. Then he sits behind bulletproof glass: black hooded jacket, white beard, metal-rimmed glasses.
He lets a defence lawyer describe his life. Syrian Palestinian. Eleven siblings. At 27, he marries a 15-year-old girl. Four children. Work in construction. Military service in the “Palestinian Liberation Army”. In the end, however, he was only a “messenger” for 300 dollars a month.
In 2016, he sends a son (15) to Germany. Then the family reunion: he arrives at the beginning of 2018 (“in the car to Beirut, in the plane to Berlin”), his wife at the end of 2018, two daughters in 2019.
They get an 80-sqm flat in Adlershof. He does not work (“was receiving medical treatment”).
Arrested on August 4, 2021. Not a word about the charges: he is said to have been a commander of a militia acting on behalf of the Assad regime. He is said to have been angry, his nephew had been killed. He is said to have been out for “revenge”.
That is why he fired the anti-tank shell into the people, according to the prosecution. Witnesses identified him as being in Germany.
To be continued on Friday, verdict in January 2023.