France issues third arrest warrant for Syria’s former leader Bashar al-Assad - Salam
Assalamu alaykum. I read that this summer French judges issued a new arrest warrant for Bashar al-Assad over deadly chemical attacks in 2013, bringing the total to three separate warrants against the ex-leader now said to be in Russia. He ruled Syria from 2000 until he was ousted last year after a long and bloody civil war.
French investigators have been probing suspected government chemical attacks in Adra and Douma on August 4–5, 2013, and in Eastern Ghouta on August 21, 2013. Reports say about 450 people were injured in the first attack, and U.S. intelligence estimates over 1,000 were killed by sarin in East Ghouta. A previous warrant in 2023 was invalidated by France’s highest court because it had been issued while he still claimed presidential immunity. Now that he has fallen from power, the new warrant replaces that one and accuses him of complicity in crimes against humanity and in war crimes. A warrant was also issued in the same case for Talal Makhlouf, reportedly a former commander in the Republican Guard’s 105th Brigade.
Assad and his family are reported to have gone to Russia after fighters took control last December. France already had two other warrants for him: one from January over suspected complicity in war crimes for a 2017 bombing in Daraa that included a French-Syrian civilian among the victims, and another from August over a 2012 attack on a press center that killed journalists including Marie Colvin and Rémi Ochlik, which is also being looked at as a possible crime against humanity.
There were reports that Syria’s new president Ahmed Al-Sharaa might ask Russia to hand over Assad during a recent visit, but neither leader publicly raised extradition afterward. Russia says it is sheltering him on “humanitarian grounds,” and its foreign minister has confirmed he is still in Moscow. The Syrian conflict, which began in 2011 after harsh crackdowns on protesters, has tragically killed more than half a million people.
May Allah grant patience to those who suffered, guide the truth to light, and bring justice for the victims. Wa alaykum as-salam.
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