Syrian doctor charged with crimes against humanity

In one case, he is accused of beating a prisoner, pouring flammable liquid on his wounds before setting them on fire and kicking him in the face so hard that three of his teeth had to be replaced.

In another, he allegedly administered a lethal injection to a prisoner who tried to resist being beaten.

He is also accused of torturing a detainee who was suffering from epilepsy by punching him in the face, hitting him with a plastic pipe and kicking him in the head.

The man died a few days later, shortly after taking a tablet given to him by Alaa M., though the cause of death is unclear.

Alaa M. left Syria in mid-2015 and moved to Germany, where he also practised as a doctor.

Syria's civil war, which started with the brutal repression of anti-government protests, has killed more than 380,000 people and displaced nearly half the country's pre-conflict population.

Germany has taken in more than 700,000 Syrian refugees since the start of the conflict.

In February, a German court convicted a former Syrian intelligence service agent for complicity in crimes against humanity in the first court case worldwide over state-sponsored torture by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government.

Eyad al-Gharib, 44, was sentenced to four and a half years in prison over his role in helping to arrest at least 30 protesters in Duma in autumn 2011 and deliver them to the Al-Khatib detention centre in Damascus where they were tortured.