Syria arrests Assad-era officer convicted in Austria

Syrian authorities have arrested former security officer Musab Ahmad Abu Rukbah, who was convicted in Austria last month of torturing opponents of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, Syrian state news agency SANA reported.

SANA said security forces in southern Syria's Daraa province arrested Abu Rukbah, a former lieutenant colonel who served in the criminal and political security branches in Raqa under Assad. It said he had illegally entered Syria and would be brought before the judiciary after legal procedures were completed.

In early July, an Austrian court sentenced Abu Rukbah and Khaled al-Halabi, a former brigadier general in Syria's intelligence services, to eight years in prison. The court found that their actions in Raqa between April 2011 and March 2013 were committed as part of “systematic torture organised by the state”.

Abu Rukbah, a former police lieutenant colonel, was found guilty of serious bodily harm, aggravated coercion and sexual coercion. Austrian media reported that he left Austria after his conviction without informing authorities there.

The case is one of several involving suspects from Syria's civil war tried in European courts under universal jurisdiction, which allows judges to rule on serious alleged crimes committed abroad.

The arrest comes after Syria's new authorities began proceedings in April against Assad and other officials accused of atrocities during the country's nearly 14-year war. Last week, Syria sentenced Bashar al-Assad and his brother Maher in absentia to death for atrocities committed during the conflict.