A former Syrian intelligence chief in the city of Raqqa was found guilty of torture and sexual abuse of opponents of former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, in a court in Vienna, Austria.

A second Syrian official, the former police chief of Raqqa, was also found guilty of abusing political opponents.

The Vienna case was a relatively rare example of a European country claiming jurisdiction over crimes committed by agents of the Assad government.

The former intelligence chief, identified only as Khaled al-H. According to Austrian privacy rules, he was head of Syria’s General Intelligence Directorate in Raqqa from 2011, when the uprising against Assad began, until 2013, when the Free Syrian Army took the city. He then fled Raqqa.

Khaled al-H., a member of the Druze ethno-religious minority, was found guilty of torture.

Both he and the second man, named Moussab Abou R., were found guilty of sexual coercion, aggravated coercion and causing grievous bodily harm.

Each of them has been sentenced to eight years in prison.

Prosecutors said that on many occasions the men ordered or failed to resist the abuse of anti-government protesters in the city of Raqqa.

Both men denied the charges. Previously in the Khaled al-H trial. He said he had neither ordered nor witnessed any torture in his workplace.

He also said that as a member of a minority group, the Druze, he had been forced to follow orders.

Prosecutors said the torture was carried out to “suppress the protest movement against the then regime and intimidate the population.”

Some of his victims, former detainees in Raqqa, traveled from across Europe and Syria to testify at the trial. The court heard how they were stripped naked and beaten, given electric shocks or doused with hot and cold water.

One man described being hit on the soles of his feet with electric cables. The court heard how many of the victims suffered lasting mental trauma after the abuse.

The two Syrian officials requested asylum in Austria in 2015.

According to media reports, Khaled al-H. was brought to Austria by the former national intelligence service, BVT, at the request of the Israeli spy agency Mossad as part of “Operation White Milk”.

The Austrian Press Agency says the deal was overseen by an Austrian official, Martin Weiss, former head of the (BVT).

Weiss is now on the run in Dubai and wanted for possible links to fugitive Austrian spy Jan Marsalek, believed to be in Moscow.

The two men have the right to appeal the sentences.