Germany has charged two alleged former Syrian secret service officers with crimes against humanity, federal prosecutors have announced, a key step in a patchwork of international efforts to seek justice for atrocities committed during the country’s long civil war.

Anwar Raslan and Eyad al-Gharib were arrested in February, in a coordinated operation by German and French police.

Raslan allegedly led an investigative unit with its own prison, known as Branch 251, near the Syrian capital, Damascus. Prosecutors claimed at least 4,000 people were tortured by his subordinates during interrogation there between April 2011 and 2012, with guards using bars, cables and whips to beat prisoners during interviews.

Some prisoners were subjected to electric shocks, while others were “hung from the ceiling by their wrists, with only their toes touching the ground”, according to a statement by the German prosecutor.

Many died as a result, and Raslan has been has been charged with 59 counts of murder, as well as rape and aggravated sexual assault.

“As head of the investigation unit, the accused Anwar R determined and oversaw the prison’s operational procedures, including the systematic and brutal use of torture,” prosecutors said in a statement. “He was aware of the fact that prisoners were dying as a result of the massive application of violent force.”

Gharib allegedly reported to Raslan, arresting protesters and delivering them to the Branch 251 jail. He is charged with a role in the abduction and torture of at least 30 people in the autumn of 2011.

Raslan and Gharib left Syria in 2013 and entered Germany as asylum seekers in July 2014 and August 2018 respectively.

Anwar Raslan came on to the radar of German investigators after a number of his alleged victims spotted him in Berlin and reported the sighting to authorities.

After years of civilian deaths and suffering at the hands of multiple parties during the Syrian conflict, the first slow efforts to bring perpetrators to justice and dispel a sense of impunity are moving through national courts in several countries.

Many have been driven by Syrian survivors, relatives, activists and lawyers, who have been collecting evidence and submitting criminal complaints across countries including Germany, Austria and Sweden.

Documented crimes include the use of chemical weapons and torture, mass execution, Islamic State’s abduction and sexual enslavement of Yazidi women, and the targeted bombing of hospitals and other civilian installations.

There has been no concerted international effort because Syria is not a party to the treaty that established the international criminal court, and Russia and China have vetoed efforts to mandate the ICC to set up a special tribunal for Syria.

The German prosecutions were welcomed by human rights groups. “We are starting to see the fruits of a determined push by victims and others to achieve justice,” said Balkees Jarrah, senior counsel at Human Rights Watch.

“Criminal cases in Germany and elsewhere in Europe are an important first step in puncturing the climate of impunity that has plagued Syria for far too long. Perpetrators should take note that an unprecedented volume of information is being gathered to help ensure they face justice, no matter how much time passes.”

The Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, which helps victims of abuse in Syria and elsewhere, said seven Syrians would be co-plaintiffs in the case, as allowed under German law.

“These charges send an important message to survivors of Assad’s system of torture,” said Wolfgang Kaleck of the ECCHR. “We will continue working to ensure that the main perpetrators of state torture under Assad are brought to justice – in Germany or elsewhere.”

The trial, set to start in 2020, will be the first prosecution for state-sponsored torture in Syria. The group described it as “an important step in the fight against impunity”, and quoted an unnamed survivor of the Branch 251 saying the judicial process was a cause for hope.

“This process in Germany gives hope, even if everything takes a long time and nothing happens tomorrow, or even the day after tomorrow. The fact that it continues at all gives us, as survivors, hope for justice. I am ready to testify,” the survivor said.