A torn portrait of ousted Syrian president Bashar Al Assad hangs at the entrance of the Defence Ministry's military security headquarters in Damascus's Kafr Sousa district on December 9, 2024.— AFP
The family and officials of ousted Syrian president Bashar Al Assad are facing justice in multiple countries, notably France and Germany, due to the nation's brutal civil war. Here are some key cases:
Since November 14, 2023, Assad, his brother Maher, and two generals, Ghassan Abbas and Bassam Al Hassan, have been subjects of international arrest warrants issued by France. They are accused of complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes related to chemical attacks in August 2013. In June 2024, the Paris appeals court upheld the arrest warrant for Assad, though prosecutors requested France's highest court to review the legality of the warrant in July.
In October 2023, French investigators issued international arrest warrants for four senior Syrian army officers believed to have ordered a 2017 bombardment in Daraa that killed a French-Syrian civilian. Fahd Jassem Al Freij, Ali Abdullah Ayoub, Ahmed Mohamed Balloul, and Ali Safetli are all charged with war crimes.
In May 2024, a Paris court sentenced three top Syrian security officials to life imprisonment for complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes. Ali Mamlouk, Jamil Hassan, and Abdel Salam Mahmoud, all absent during the trial, were convicted for their roles in the torture and disappearance of a French-Syrian father and son in 2013.
A Syrian military doctor, Alaa Moussa, has been on trial in Frankfurt since 2021, accused of torture, murder, and crimes against humanity in military hospitals. Moussa, who arrived in Germany in 2015, faces 18 cases of torture and the murder of an inmate by injection.
In January 2022, Germany convicted former Syrian colonel Anwar Raslan of crimes against humanity and sentenced him to life imprisonment, marking the first global trial over state-sponsored torture in Syrian prisons. In February 2023, a government militia member arrested in Germany in 2021 received a life sentence for war crimes and the deaths of at least four civilians in the Yarmouk refugee camp in 2014.
In June 2024, a Swedish court acquitted former Syrian general Mohammed Hamo of war crimes, stating that prosecutors failed to prove his involvement in indiscriminate attacks. Hamo, one of the highest-ranking Syrian military officials to stand trial in Europe, was cleared of charges.
In March 2024, Switzerland's Attorney General charged Assad's uncle, Rifaat Al Assad, with war crimes and crimes against humanity, earning him the nickname 'The Butcher of Hama.' Rifaat, the former Syrian vice president, is accused of crimes committed in 1982 during clashes between the Syrian military and Islamist opposition in Hama. His trial date remains unannounced.
In the first international case over the Syria conflict, the International Court of Justice in The Hague, launched by Canada and the Netherlands, ordered Syria in November 2023 to prevent acts of torture and other cruel treatment. Written submissions are due by early 2025.
Source link: https://www.khaleejtimes.com
