©(SAUDI PRESS AGENCY / AFP)
Paris judges on Wednesday confirmed a French arrest warrant for Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad over alleged complicity in crimes against humanity in the 2013 chemical attacks, the plaintiffs' lawyers said.
The Paris appeals court found Assad could be sought over deadly August 2013 attacks on Syrian soil with chemical weapons.
"This is a historic decision. It's the first time a national court has recognized that a sitting head of state does not have total personal immunity" for their actions, said plaintiffs' lawyers Clémence Bectarte, Jeanne Sulzer and Clémence Witt.
Prosecutors from a unit specialized in investigating terrorist attacks had sought to annul the warrant, arguing that immunity for foreign heads of state should only be lifted for international prosecutions, such as before the International Criminal Court (ICC).
They did not aim to "question the existence of evidence demonstrating Bashar al-Assad's complicity in the chemical attacks," they said.
France is believed to be the first country to have issued an arrest warrant for a sitting foreign head of state.
The anti-terrorist prosecutors could yet appeal the judgement to France's highest court, the Court of Cassation.
The arrest warrant, initially issued in mid-November on the request of investigative magistrates specialized in so-called crimes against humanity, calls for Assad to be detained over his role in the chain of command for attacks on Adra and Douma on August 4-5, 2013, and East Ghouta on August 21.
Around 450 people were hurt in the first attack, while American intelligence says over 1,000 were killed with sarin nerve gas in East Ghouta, a suburb of Syrian capital Damascus.
Alongside Assad, the warrants target his brother Maher – then head of the Syrian army's fourth division – and two generals, Ghassan Abbas and Bassam al-Hassan.
The anti-terror prosecutors contested only the warrant for Assad's arrest.
The investigation by the crimes against humanity unit of France's Central Office for Combating Core International Crimes and Hate Crimes (OCLCH) is based on photos, videos and maps, many supplied by plaintiffs, as well as testimony from survivors and former military personnel.
Soon after the attacks, Syria agreed to join the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), and has denied subsequent allegations that it continued to use the arms.
It had its OPCW voting rights suspended in 2021 following poison gas attacks on civilians in 2017.
With AFP
The Paris appeals court found Assad could be sought over deadly August 2013 attacks on Syrian soil with chemical weapons.
"This is a historic decision. It's the first time a national court has recognized that a sitting head of state does not have total personal immunity" for their actions, said plaintiffs' lawyers Clémence Bectarte, Jeanne Sulzer and Clémence Witt.
Prosecutors from a unit specialized in investigating terrorist attacks had sought to annul the warrant, arguing that immunity for foreign heads of state should only be lifted for international prosecutions, such as before the International Criminal Court (ICC).
They did not aim to "question the existence of evidence demonstrating Bashar al-Assad's complicity in the chemical attacks," they said.
France is believed to be the first country to have issued an arrest warrant for a sitting foreign head of state.
The anti-terrorist prosecutors could yet appeal the judgement to France's highest court, the Court of Cassation.
The arrest warrant, initially issued in mid-November on the request of investigative magistrates specialized in so-called crimes against humanity, calls for Assad to be detained over his role in the chain of command for attacks on Adra and Douma on August 4-5, 2013, and East Ghouta on August 21.
Around 450 people were hurt in the first attack, while American intelligence says over 1,000 were killed with sarin nerve gas in East Ghouta, a suburb of Syrian capital Damascus.
Alongside Assad, the warrants target his brother Maher – then head of the Syrian army's fourth division – and two generals, Ghassan Abbas and Bassam al-Hassan.
The anti-terror prosecutors contested only the warrant for Assad's arrest.
The investigation by the crimes against humanity unit of France's Central Office for Combating Core International Crimes and Hate Crimes (OCLCH) is based on photos, videos and maps, many supplied by plaintiffs, as well as testimony from survivors and former military personnel.
Soon after the attacks, Syria agreed to join the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), and has denied subsequent allegations that it continued to use the arms.
It had its OPCW voting rights suspended in 2021 following poison gas attacks on civilians in 2017.
With AFP
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