Germany's Federal Public Prosecutor's Office has filed charges against a suspected member of a militia linked to the Syrian regime.
The man is accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes in a total of 21 cases, the prosecutor's office announced on Wednesday.
Officers from the Federal Criminal Police Office arrested the Syrian in the northern German city of Bremen last August, and he has been held in custody since then. The State Security Senate of the Hamburg Higher Regional Court must now decide whether to schedule a trial.
From 2012 to 2015, the man is alleged to have been a member of a militia that was commissioned by the Syrian regime to violently suppress opposition in the At-Tadamon neighbourhood of the capital Damascus, working alongside a branch of the military intelligence service.
They allegedly operated checkpoints and regularly arrested people there arbitrarily in order to extort money from them or their relatives, force them to perform forced labour, or torture them.
The accused himself allegedly abused several civilians. He grabbed one victim by the hair and banged his head on the pavement, according to the federal prosecutor's office.
On a total of nine occasions at various checkpoints, he allegedly arrested civilians and forced them to transport sandbags to the nearby frontline for several hours at a time. The prisoners had been forced to work there under fire and without food and water supplies.
Syria has been engulfed by a civil war since 2011. Today, head of state Bashar al-Assad has control of two thirds of the country with the help of his allies Russia, Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia. The north-western part of the country is under the control of opposition forces.