Thread by @CampbellMacD

This is the extraordinary story of how a senior Syrian general in charge of an intelligence branch alleged to have carried out war crimes gained asylum in Europe with the help of Western and Israeli intelligence. It's a wild ride but I'll try to summarise. telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/11/2…

Brigadier General Khaled al-Halabi, was chief of Syrian Branch 335 intelligence in Raqqa from 2009 until 2013, where @CIJAinfo found evidence of “murder, torture, rape, a variety of sexual offences against men and women, crimes against minors,” according to @NermaJelacic.

A Syrian refugee who claimed he was tortured in Branch 335 said: "The person at the head of this intelligence service was called Khaled al-Halabi. It was a name that cast fear into all of us." francetvinfo.fr/monde/proche-o…

In 2013, as Raqqa fell to Syrian rebels, Halabi slipped out of the city and went to Turkey. From there he travelled to Jordan, where French intelligence helped him travel to France, beleiving he could be a useful source.

But his asylum application in France was rejected under a provision of the Geneva Convention, 1F, that denies refugee status when there are serious concerns someone may have committed a “crime against peace, a war crime, or a crime against humanity...”

This is where things get even weirder. “As he was really peeved not to get asylum in France, he appears to have made contact with Mossad who got in contact with Austria's BVT," a French judicial source told us.

They apparently smuggled him to Austria, pressured Austrian authorities to grant him asylum. He was reportedly installeld in a massive apartment in public housing in Vienna, received more than €50,000 in public benefits & a €5,000 monthly stipend from Mossad. 🤷‍♂️

This unsurprisingly caused a big scandal in Austria when the news eventually broke. @KURIERat newpaper did a massive investigation alleging various malfeasance by Austrian authorities. kurier.at/chronik/oester…

Prosecutors are now investigating figures in the BFA asylum authority and the BVT for abuse of power, including a department head and former counterintelligence chief, @KURIERat reports. But no one official would talk to us, citing ongoing investigations.

But what happened to Halabi? By the time Austrian police finally opened an investigation, he had disappeared from his four-bedroom Vienna apartment. @balazscseko went there and found neighbours who remembered a quiet, polite man who smoked a lot.

French authorities still hope to question him. “It's clear he is a big fish," our French judicial source said. "We wanted to quiz him about all the testimonies we have gathered. It is very frustrating as he was a top target."

@CIJAinfo, an organisation that gathers evidence of genocide, war crimes, & crimes against humanity from conflict zones, believes he is the highest-ranking Syrian official in the Schengen Zone, & as such could be the most senior Syrian figure within reach of international justice

Halabi is not accused of directly committing war crimes but of responsiblity for war crimes committed under his command. He denies responsiblity. "It's not true at all, these accusations are false," he told @franceinfoplus. "There is no proof, show me the proof if you have any."

We called him up to get his side of the story. His WhatsApp account had a photo of him in Paris as the profile picture.

"You have the wrong number," he said before hanging up and blocking our phone. Shortly afterwards he changed his profile picture.

He apparently continues to move between Austria, Slovakia and Switzerland, "where a certain Syrian ex-general has offered him protection,” our French judicial source told us. A legal complaint for “war crimes & crimes against humanity” has been filed in one of these countries.

It was terrific to have great colleagues in Paris (@H_E_Samuel), Vienna (@balazscseko) & Berlin (@justinhuggler) to work with me on this story, & a desk which gave us time to dig. There's a lot more to this story, I encourage you to read the whole thing telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/11/2…