BERLIN — A German court docket on Thursday convicted a Palestinian man from Syria of a struggle crime and homicide for launching a grenade right into a crowd of civilians ready for meals in Damascus in 2014. He was sentenced to life in jail.

The 55-year-old, recognized solely as Moafak D. according to German privateness guidelines, was arrested in 2021 in Berlin, the place he had been dwelling as a refugee. His trial opened in August.

The German capital’s district court docket discovered that the defendant on March 23, 2014, the suspect launched a grenade from an anti-tank weapon into the group within the Yarmouk district of Damascus, killing 4 individuals and significantly wounding two others.

It mentioned that he was the commander of a checkpoint for a Palestinian group, in all probability the Free Palestine Motion, and on the day in query additionally was imagined to be overseeing a distribution of meals packages by the U.N. Reduction and Works Company, the U.N. company for Palestinian refugees.

The Yarmouk district, which grew out of a Palestinian refugee camp, was cordoned off by the Syrian authorities from July 2013 to April 2015, inflicting shortages of meals, water and medical provides.

The court docket mentioned the defendant acted out of revenge in opposition to civilians within the district after his 25-year-old nephew was killed two days earlier by photographs fired by opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s authorities.

He was convicted of a very critical struggle crime, 4 counts of homicide, two counts of tried homicide and bodily hurt. The court docket additionally decided that he bears notably extreme guilt, which means that he will not be eligible for launch after 15 years as is often the case in Germany.

The decision may be appealed.

Germany’s utility of the rule of “common jurisdiction,” permitting the prosecution of great crimes dedicated overseas, led final yr to the primary conviction of a senior Syrian official for crimes in opposition to humanity.