Syrian Brig.-Gen. Khaled al-Halabi, an alleged former Mossad double agent, has been indicted for allegations of torture in Raqqa from 2011 to 2013, after a 12-year manhunt that ended with his arrest last December, according to a Wednesday report from the New York Times and the Vienna public prosecutor’s office.
Prosecutors and independent investigators say Halabi evaded scrutiny for years in Paris and Vienna, at times protected by intelligence contacts, before open-source researchers traced him in part through a social media photo on a Budapest bridge. Through their lawyers, both men have denied mistreating detainees.
The indictment centers on alleged abuses by State Security Branch 335 in Raqqa as Syria’s uprising escalated. Victims described routine torture to extract information on protest organizers and media contacts; at least 21 victims were identified by prosecutors.
Several said they were tortured in al-Halabi’s personal office, including one survivor who described a nightlong session. A similar case was detailed when a German court issued a guilty verdict in the first Syrian torture trial involving Assad regime officials.
Alleged Mossad operative hid in Vienna after fleeing Syria
Investigators and Austrian prosecutors say Halabi worked as a double agent for Israel’s Mossad before fleeing Syria in 2013.
After arriving in Paris, he slipped away in 2015 as France tightened its asylum checks. According to an Austrian prosecutor, Mossad and Austrian officers then drove him toward Austria and escorted him to Vienna, where, acting on their own initiative, they helped with asylum and housing. The case drew attention similar to when the Austrian interior minister sought Israeli input on security and intelligence cooperation.
Israeli officials did not respond to the NYT's questions, while Austria’s Interior and Justice ministries declined to comment on individual cases.
The assistance later drew scrutiny in Austria. In April 2023, four former officials of the domestic intelligence agency BVT and a former asylum official were tried for alleged abuse of office tied to facilitating Halabi’s asylum under a cooperation arrangement with Mossad. A recent arrest in Berlin also highlighted the presence of Assad-linked officials in Europe.
From defector to suspect
Initially, some investigators viewed Halabi as a defector before evidence shifted him to suspect status, Chris Engels of the Commission for International Justice and Accountability told the NYT. The Open Society Justice Initiative made him “Case Zero,” said Steve Kostas, assembling a dossier that included the Budapest photo and other traces leading to Vienna.
Former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad was toppled by a rebel offensive last year, and efforts to establish accountability continue amid political hurdles, including Russian vetoes and a nascent Syrian war crimes commission.
“You feel pain when you see victims,” said lawyer Asyad Almousa, who says he encountered Abu Rukbah in an Austrian refugee camp in 2015. “But you feel even more pain when you see these criminals evading justice.”