Trial of Iranian-German Youth Accused of War Crimes in Syria

A 21-year-old Iranian-German youth suspected of being a member of the Islamic State group, or ISIS, who has photos with the decapitated victims of this group, was tried on Tuesday, April 14, in a German court on charges of committing war crimes. According to a report by the French news agency, Arya Lajvardi stated in court that he did not want to be in these photos and did not expect them to reach social media. However, German prosecutors have accused him of war crimes for having 'humiliating behavior' towards the nameless victims of the Syrian civil war. The photos in question, in which Arya Lajvardi is holding the decapitated heads of victims, date back to the spring of 2014 and were later published on Facebook. Federal prosecutors in Germany believe that he took these photos with two companions to humiliate victims whom they considered infidels or non-believers. However, Arya Lajvardi, who faces at least one year in prison, denied the charges in his first trial session, stating that he went to Syria only to help the victims of Bashar al-Assad's regime. He described the incident regarding the photos as being taken by a group of villagers who had arrived at the scene of the crime while he was there solely to assist the local people. He also denied the accusation of membership in jihadist groups, although he acknowledged that he had received training in the use of weapons. The German federal prosecutor's office has yet to determine which group provided him with military training. Arya Lajvardi was arrested last fall in Frankfurt and has been in custody since then.