In world first, Germany convicts Syrian regime officer of crimes against humanity - CNN

Former intelligence officer Eyad al-Gharib, 44, was sentenced to four-and-a-half-years in prison by a court in the German city of Koblenz for aiding crimes against humanity.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime has been repeatedly accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the course of the country's nearly decade-long war.

"Not only because it is the first to convict a Syrian regime official for crimes against humanity, but also because it recognizes his crimes were part of a widespread and systematic attack orchestrated by the highest bodies of Assad's regime.

[al-Gharib] was convicted for were committed in those early days of the uprising as the regime cracked down on bare-armed protesters."

Since 2012, CIJA has collected evidence of the Syrian government's alleged crimes from investigators known as "document hunters." These are Syrians recruited and trained by former war crimes investigators and lawyers to smuggle thousands of government documents out of Syrian war zones.