Overview
- The trial, which opened Monday, June 1, 2026, saw Brigadier General Khaled al‑Halabi and Lieutenant Colonel Musab Abu Rukbah plead not guilty to charges including torture, aggravated coercion, sexual coercion and serious bodily harm.
- Prosecutors say 21 detainees were subjected to systematic, standardised abuse in Raqqa between April 2011 and March 2013, describing crowded cells, beatings with green garden hoses, repeated cold‑water hosing and a device called the 'magic carpet'.
- Halabi, 63, and Abu Rukbah, 54, applied for asylum in Austria in 2015 and Halabi has been in pre‑trial detention since 2024, while Abu Rukbah has denied the accusations and his lawyer said there is no evidence against him.
- Austrian courts say they have jurisdiction because the men live in Austria and prosecutors relied on national law plus international treaties to lift the ordinary statute of limitations and press charges for crimes committed abroad.
- Local media have reported an intelligence‑assisted transfer to Austria in 2015 called 'Operation White Milk' involving Israeli and Austrian services but those claims have not been proven in this trial and related probes of Austrian officials produced acquittals in 2023.