we talked to those who began the struggle for freedom and those who showed personal courage. the good the fall of the wall didn't surprise me usually the 1st what does it take to change the course of history. raising the iron curtain starts september 30th on t w. we were in the german city of last number look after months of research we come face to face with this man. an alleged syrian war criminal who we can only identify as mohamed s. living freely in germany who is he the allegations against him are grave and the shells as we know that this man is in germany he was involved in numerous crimes against civilians and government and he. suspected war criminals like mohamed

atta's joined of the many syrian refugees who have come to germany. now the german authorities and other groups are working to track them down they say no criminals should feel safe it was i've often thought why should we do this because no one else says and because these are the worst crimes we've seen in decades that it seems that the off the top news a couple left heinous atrocities committed against human beings must not go unpunished. last year we discovered lists on line drawn up by syrian activists. they provided the names and photos of alleged syrian war criminals are said to have gone into hiding in germany. in many cases the lists provided no compelling evidence.

but the allegations against this matter mohammad s. were detailed and specific so we decided to see what more we could find out. where on our way to see someone who says he used to live in the syrian city of aleppo in the same neighborhood as mohammed as. the man who we still call ahmed is afraid of mohammad s. and doesn't want to be identified on camera. he begins to tell us what he knows. mohamed s. and i are from the same part of northern aleppo from honduras. and after the start of the uprising in syria in 2011 he set up a militia called the out codes brigade. and kept to that he started being very aggressive towards ordinary civilians especially

demonstrators he would beat them lock them up and kill them. but that. did not only hear about the crimes committed by the brigade he says he even witnessed some of them. according to him the militia was led by 2 men one of whom was mohammad s. . there appear to be at least 2 groups that are fought in syria under the name of coots one has been mainly active in northern aleppo. we find propaganda videos posted online by the group. on mon mohammed s takes a reporter from a lebanese broadcaster through the rubble of his neighborhood showing her from where they were shot at and more the fighters have been hiding. the brigade is considered part of the so-called shut behind network of state sponsored militia largely made up of former civilians armed by the regime of bashar

al assad. german authorities investigating suspected syrian militants are well aware of these groups. our source ahmad makes specific allegations. i was there when mohammed asked threatened a doctor at gunpoint when he tried to treat wounded civilians. these people had been shot and injured near our neighborhood. so they were taken to see a doctor. i was there when mohamed s. and his brothers threatened to kill the doctor. they said he mustn't give medical treatment to the wounded civilians. but says mohammed has also gave the order to shoot at unarmed protesters and recruited child

soldiers for the war. it's impossible for us to verify many of his statements but we continue to search for more witnesses. which brings us to the federal criminal police office near bonn this building houses germany's central unit for the fight. against war crimes costs on a news team deal every day with statements that are difficult to verify the police officers here investigate cases even if they've been carried out in syria. and also in all journalists states that even when a non german citizen commits a crime against another german outside of germany if the crimes are extremely serious like genocide war crimes or crimes against humanity then we can investigate it from here in germany. and that. if the suspected perpetrator is in germany so on and his team are called in statements from victims and witnesses are vital for the police officers here and play

a key role in the investigation. it's the large number of statements from witnesses that concur with one another and the many investigations that start to give us a picture. and ultimately it's this evidence from witnesses that allows us to build up a case all right. the police here are currently investigating more than 2500 such leads. across the country to berlin. here the european center for constitutional and human rights or e.c.c. a charge for short provides legal support for victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity. patrick coca is responsible for the ngos work on syria let's get this for all in full to forward focused mainly on the allegation of torture and torture can be a war crime and it could also be

a crime against humanity. what both these crimes have in common is that they are only punishable under international law within a certain context which is a context but it keeps such an eye in the case of war crimes that context is armed conflict it may be. a civil war or trans national one. once that's been determined the crimes under international law such as killing detention torture abuse of prisoners exciter become war crimes and then. the e.c.c. h.r. helps victims to give evidence on the abuses they've experienced but it's not just about the individual cases the nonprofit organization is looking to prove that the individual perpetrators in syria are part of a system of torture and murder targeting the civilian population. and to do that they need evidence.

on the. mountain more about him was born 13 years after his brother's. we've actually been hoping for a girl is a gun before he had a wonderful childhood if a kid one. day him was a very good looking boy who when he was quiet tidy. totally different from his brothers. and he was an outstanding student at school. so i don't know. the story of my docs on a home is one of many that could help prove systematic torture and cover up on the part of the syrian regime. in late 20 s levon her son was arrested by the secret police for the 2nd time in just a few months. what are.

they tied his hands behind his back. and then beat him in the stomach you don't. hit it in the used pliers to rip the nails off his fingers and toes they push needles through his ears and. they wanted to pull all his teeth out as well but one of the guards said he couldn't bear to watch and so he hit him over the head with a club instead. she says a ham was then packed into a car and taken to a different prison. for months she didn't know where her son was it was only later that she was informed by the syrian authorities that her son had died of a heart attack. but one of the hams fellow prisoners told her what really happened . a doctor was being held with him in the same cell. the doctor knocked on the door of their cell and called out to the guard.

you need to save this young man he said. he's got internal bleeding. the guard told him just tell me when he's dead. in 5 days later he was. the guard then had a doctor come and certify. that. years later photos appeared online showing the bodies of those who died in the prisons of the assad regime including a camp they became known as the caesar photos. this is my son's corpse number 320 and the division that arrested him to 15 on. the photo of a hammer is one of thousands of shocking images taken by a syrian military defector code named caesar. between 20112013

caesar photographed the bodies of prisoners who died in syrian government detention facilities and. i'm one of the law as representing the seize a group. we brought the photos to germany we've been working with the e.c.c. a and with other organizations in germany and in sweden too to bring charges against syrian leaders on the basis of these photos. to be. a money why this way when i'm self feed the international. media the number has been written directly on the body. this is the symbol for syria's air force intelligence service and here on the paper is the victim's number . all and here again force intelligence. finally the corpse has been given a number of lee. slowly

when we look at the photo smuggled out by caesar it's clear that this torture is terrible and above all systematic it's always the same injuries that we see on the bodies of the prison those. and even now prisoners in syria suffering the same torture every day. after fleeing syria madea on how doc shared everything she knew with the e.c.c. h.r. and the german authorities. the syrian lawyer abraham sam knows her story and has often asked her to repeat it. how long was he detained the 1st time. in 33 days in the 1st prison and another 33 in the 2nd. the ngo arranged for the photos to be passed on to the german

federal prosecutor's office which after months of forensic tests concluded they were genuine. says had some device. and the value of this evidence is incredible it's almost like having access to mass graves in syria which is out of the question that you'd suddenly have thousands of photos of many many people believed to have been tortured to death with nothing to total mention these photos can be analyzed as evidence by forensic medical experts and can be studied properly in an investigation like this. fog. but the photos are only part of the investigation into war crimes committed in syria. the authorities still need those who are willing to give evidence and there are many syrians in germany ready to do just that and to testify against other syrians not living in germany. it's that it's just

for the past 8 years this has been an unbelievably dirty war with the worst atrocities you can imagine being committed on all sides. so there is an unbelievable number of perpetrators. then you have this huge exodus to see people changing sides others deserving and lots of people running away and of course some of those people were involved in the crimes. just on i think it's a logical consequence of this chaos of war also you can click civilian have holes. and sides and you could securely since we had the big influx of refugees we've been able to engage with many of the victims and witnesses and speak to them and question them. and we have indeed carried out many interviews in order from the moment what's. next we're off to

switzerland. here and not a good majority we meet the woman who had hoped to get syrian war criminals brought before the international criminal court in a. colorado punter. in 1990 she was appointed chief prosecutor for united nations tribunal was on war crimes in rwanda and the former yugoslavia in 2012 she joined a new u.n. commission to investigate crimes in syria it had no power to prosecute so del ponte there called repeatedly for an international tribunal for syria over. the. i wanted to apply pressure to try to convince the security council. what i would ask do you want to do something or not. these type to be all do you want justice for the victims or don't you do we want this president to be brought to trial. and like. that even if he's been

through theatrical 5 years i worked on it hoping something would happen but nothing did buy health with the heat. so i left i was frustrated i had really had enough. i think in a. the u.n. security council has long been divided over syria that pointer says the veto powers russia and china opposed establishing a tribunal so what's left to the nation states to try to bring individuals to trial . we don't have an international tribunal for syria but the national courts are at least getting some of the lower ranking perpetrators and that's good. so german authorities are free to investigate suspected war criminals in syria if the suspects are in germany they are in fact required to do so under german law.

we continue our efforts to track down more crimes suspect mohamed s. a new witness wants to talk to us about what he knows he lives near the french border. he too wants to remain anonymous for fear of muhammad s. the 2 of them used to be neighbors in northern aleppo it tells us. i remember one as a tense well. at a checkpoint near our neighborhood a car that's azuki was shot at by government troops. 4 members of one family were sitting on the back seat. the father was wounded by the shots so the family fled to our neighborhood we immediately brought the severely wounded man to a doctor then mohammad s. and his brothers turned out they were the leaders of the militia they wanted us to

give them the man even though he was severely wounded. they refused to hand over their wounded man this witness this statement is very similar to that of the 1st one although told from a different perspective. the events are said to have taken place here in a suburb of aleppo where mohammed atta sent his brigade thought. the new witness is able to identify some of the other militants. the calls of. this boy here was only a minor with. us his name was not on. the other whether he was 13 years old when he started fighting. he was killed in the conflict when he was 15 or 16 of us and. so mohammad has is said to be the leader of a group that recruited a 13 year old child soldier the most specific indication of a war crime so far and that's not all the witness says he heard mohamed s.

giving instructions by phone to carry out an air raid on a school. that i've been in it was between the 20th and 24th of november 2012 i no longer remember the exact date of that. you know. it was just before sundown so between 5 and 6 in the evening that. me and mohamed s. was standing right outside his front door. not inside the house or beside it. and then i heard him say the name of the school. that i see his exact words were. there on time it was the end there in this area and the school nasir and it never knew re bakery. but he says the people inside the school building were not armed they were civilians who had fled from the fighting

so according to our witness hamad s. had ordered an air raid on civilians but the most serious allegation we've heard so far. we then meet with a syrian human rights lawyer and more are bony. he estimates that around a 1000 syrian war criminals are now id in europe he's taking us to see someone who was tortured in syrian detention but survived. we're going to see a witness who gave a statement on a very specific case. and it's partly because of his statement that 2 suspects are now in custody here in germany. i was the witness was a victim of these 2 men will. he tell the german federal prosecutor how they tortured him. money is highly respected within large parts of the syrian community in europe. many

syrians trust him because he spent decades as a lawyer representing political dissidents in syria. he also spent 5 years in a syrian prison. with him in the background victims are more emboldened to talk. to the 2 men greet each other warmly. well the 1st time i was arrested it was at the start of the demonstrations in 2011 by then i wanted to take photos one of the demonstrations and there were others next to me filming in taking photos to. follow but suddenly just after the end of the rally i was arrested by people from the secret service you.

know i suffered along. with most of them are quite clear was arrested several times he says he was tortured every time and that those responsible are now in germany. head of the department to arrested him identified only as anwar are and one of his henchmen had a. german federal prosecutor had both of them arrested at the start of this year. but he had a was then released in may. we managed to get in contact with his brother and wanted to interview him but the brother refused shortly after that the authorities rearrested a day. in the fog of course when i was in syria there was no way i could press charges against these men. i was so pleased when i heard that germany wants to prosecute war crimes. thank her it's me to go to the authorities and give

evidence i see it as a chance to get justice not only for me but for all the other prisoners too. the 2 suspects are expected to go on trial early next year. helps and the survivors are our main lead yet as this case shows where 2 people are now in custody anwar r. and a. and it was through contact with the witnesses that we are supporting that we discovered that this anwar are was said to be in germany. but once we realized the federal prosecutor was already investigating it was clear that we didn't need to take any action. that's why we were content then to just support their investigations thank you. we want to know what syrian lawyer an oil burning knows about the suspect we've been investigating mohammed s.

we share with him the information we received about possible crimes carried out by muhammad s. . yet had to show. we know that this man is in germany. he belonged to the brigade in north and in 100 out. we assumed that he was involved in numerous crimes against civilians and that he how we're currently trying to gather as much evidence on him as we can. loved. and how to. we discover that muhammad s. lives in the northwestern german city of us now puk. so we set out to find him.

but we soon discover that he's given out a number of fake addresses. we go to enquire at one of the locations. we show the photograph of the suspect to one of the residence he tells us that he's been living here for 20 years and has never seen the man in the photo. but then we strike lucky. we meet someone who knows mohamed us from doing a german language course. he tells us mohammad has smoked a lot and seemed restless and stressed none of the other pupils knew where he lived if he met up with anyone but only in town. we're told that even when he has his furniture delivered he has it dropped at this open space. his behavior is certainly unusual. finally

right nearby we find him mohammad s suspected war criminals living with his family had no way and this residential complex. we identify ourselves as coming from german public television. which i am that we received information that he fought in syria and ask him if we could talk about it . he invites us in. he tells us he doesn't want to be identified on television here in germany back in syria he seemed to enjoy the attention of television cameras. but now he says it could endanger members of his family back at home. he came to germany by plane would be a iran he says and he confirms that he's the man on the photos but he co-founded

the brigade and let it. he says they were politically neutral and fought only against terrorists. we ask if it's true that this boy was only 13 years old when he fought alongside him. this boy he says no i think he was 18. we ask if he gave coordinates for an air raid on a school where refugees civilians were sheltering. no he says he never did that. the witnesses who have spoken out against him say they've taken their information to the german police they hope that one day he will face trial. in that bank and you have to remember that there are always victims for every perpetrator. and they are waiting for justice but that i'll just beat. gently stockett's it sounds an incredibly strong signal when people arrive here and

find the rule of law being applied to these crimes where they have rights and where the accused also have rights to think that without also encourages integration here when they experience fair legal proceedings bringing those who've tortured others to trial and even given less of you for talking to. me than one of the we don't want to force anyone to give evidence but i can only encourage victims who have specific information about crimes carried out in syria especially if the perpetrators are living here in germany to go to the police so that we can then take things further board on the it is open to a point it's like if you're done with.

a small circle in superior big changes. people making it possible to go africa fantastic right join them as they set out to safe environments. to learn from one another. and work together for a better future. i think the inside the cook africa policy w. come along the media attention of the famous naturalist and explorer. to celebrate alexander from whom both soon to. and fish just. barking on the floor each of the discovery. expedition boys on.

this is g.w. news why but from berlin tonight at the united nations a climate summit and an impassioned teenager calling elk world leaders will lead to the beginning of a mass extinctions and what you can talk about is money and fame or tales of economic growth how to get you. the popular young activist challenges the german chancellor into all the world leaders to stop delivering empty words and finally to take action to stop climate change.