Two former members of Syria’s secret police have been arrested in Germany on suspicion of torturing anti-government activists early in the country’s uprising.

The men were arrested in Berlin and the southwestern state of Rhineland-Palatinate on Tuesday, according to prosecutors. They had been living in Germany since 2012.

Anwar R, 56, was described as a high-ranking member of Syria’s General Intelligence Directorate, and is accused of responsibility for the torture of detainees at the al-Khatib detention facility in Damascus between 2011 and 2012. Forty-two-year-old Eyad A is accused of being part of a unit that brought detainees to the infamous prison.

The arrests could pave the way for the first criminal trials of senior members of Bashar al-Assad’s regime anywhere in the world, and would represent a significant milestone in efforts to hold the government accountable for well-documented crimes against humanity.

“The arrests are hugely significant for ensuring justice for victims of war crimes, crimes against humanity and other serious human rights abuses in Syria,” Kristyan Benedict, Amnesty International’s crisis campaigns manager, told The Independent.

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“We are now a huge step closer to seeing senior members of Assad’s torture network being properly held to account in a court of law,” he added.

German federal prosecutors who made the arrests heard evidence from six survivors of torture, and were helped by research from the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), which investigates and seeks accountability for crimes committed by all parties in the conflict.

Wolfgang Kaleck, the ECCHR’s general secretary, said the survivors who helped with the investigation would stand as witnesses in any future criminal trial.

“The arrest shows once again that Germany is taking the fight against impunity for torture in Syria seriously,” he said in a statement. “It sends a very important message to survivors of Assad’s system of torture. Without justice, there will be no lasting peace in Syria.”

Since the 2011 uprising against Mr Assad’s government began, conservative estimates suggest that upwards of 17,000 people have died in government custody, either due to torture, execution or lack of medical care. Tens of thousands more have been subjected to torture and survived, according to Amnesty International.

The al-Khatib detention facility was run by the General Intelligence Directorate, for whom Anwar R was said to be an “investigator”, which would have made him directly responsible for overseeing the torture of detainees.