Middle Eastern legal dramas play out in far-off courts

IT WAS JUSTICE on a microscopic scale. On January 13th Anwar Raslan, a former Syrian intelligence officer, was sentenced to life in prison for crimes against humanity. The verdict followed more than 100 court sessions at which witnesses told of beatings, electrocutions and rapes in Branch 251, the prison Mr Raslan ran for two years. At least 27 detainees were killed and 4,000 tortured during his tenure.Horrific as it was, the testimony covered one small corner of a sprawling security apparatus. Bashar al-Assad’s regime is responsible for numerous atrocities in a war that has killed perhaps 500,000 people and displaced more than half of Syria’s pre-war population of 22m. Yet Mr Raslan is the first official convicted for taking part (a low-ranking employee was jailed last year). The wheels of justice turn slowly.