French court issues arrest warrant for Bashar al-Assad for complicity in war crimes

A French court has issued an international arrest warrant for the Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad for complicity in war crimes against humanity linked to chemical weapon attacks on civilians.

Three others – including Assad’s brother Maher, head of an elite army unit – are also subject to warrants over the use of banned sarin gas in two attacks in August 2013 that killed more than 1,000 people, including hundreds of children.

Campaigners seeking justice for the killings hailed as “a historic moment” what is believed to be the first time a sitting head of state has been the subject of an arrest warrant in another country for crimes against humanity.

“The French judiciary’s issuance of arrest warrants against the head of state, Bashar al-Assad, and his associates constitutes a historic judicial precedent. It is a new victory for the victims, their families and the survivors, and a step on the path to justice and sustainable peace in Syria,” said the lawyer Mazen Darwish, founder and director general of the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), a civil party to the case.

Investigating judges from the crimes against humanity division of the Paris judicial court have been investigating the chemical attacks in Syria since April 2021. The investigation was sparked after a civil party complaint from three organisations: the SCM, the Open Society Justice Initiative, and Syrian Archive, a Syrian-led project documenting human rights violations and other crimes committed in Syria.

Similar civil cases against the Damascus regime have been lodged with courts in Sweden and Germany.

As well as Bashar al-Assad and Maher al-Assad, the much feared de facto leader of the regime’s 4th Armoured division, the French court on Wednesday issued warrants for the arrest of Gen Ghassan Abbas, director of Branch 450 of the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Centre (SSRC), and Gen Bassam al-Hassan, presidential adviser for strategic affairs and liaison officer between the presidential palace and the SSRC.

The arrest warrants make the legal charge of complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes against all four.

Steve Kostas, senior managing lawyer at the Open Society Justice Initiative, said: “This is the first time a sitting head of state has been the subject of an arrest warrant in another country for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“This is a historic moment – with this case, France has an opportunity to establish the principle that there is no immunity for the most serious international crimes, even at the highest level.”

The attacks happened in the early hours of 21 August 2013 in the district of Ghouta in the eastern suburbs of Damascus controlled by opposition rebels, and almost led to American intervention in the civil war.

The then president, Barack Obama, had earlier warned Assad that the use of chemical weapons would be a “red line” that could push the US into military action, but backed down after Syria agreed to a US-Russian plan to dismantle its chemical weapons. In July this year, weapons experts said they were sceptical that this has been done.

The then British prime minister, David Cameron, said scientists at the UK’s defence science and technology laboratory at Porton Down in Wiltshire had tested clothing and soil samples from the area and were “confident and remain confident that Assad was responsible” for the attack.

Hadi al-Khatib, founder of Syrian Archive, added: “With these arrest warrants, France is taking a firm stand that the horrific crimes that happened 10 years ago cannot and will not be left unaccounted for.

“We see France, and hopefully, other countries soon, taking the strong evidence that we have gathered over years and finally demanding criminal responsibility from the highest-level officials.”

Darwish added: “The investigative judges in France have had their say regarding this type of crime; no one is immune.” He said the legal case was based on “first-hand evidence from numerous victims” as well as a thorough analysis of the Syrian military’s chain of command.

UN chemical weapons experts have explicitly blamed al-Assad for using sarin, chlorine and mustard gas against civilians in Syria on several occasions. The Syrian government has always claimed foreign fighters and their international backers were responsible for the Ghouta attacks.

Researchers from the Global Public Policy Institute in Berlin along with Syrian and international partners claim they have confirmed or credibly substantiated accounts of 345 chemical weapons attacks across Syria since 2011, building on what the institute described as years of painstaking research. Approximately 98% of the attacks were carried out by the Assad regime, it reported.

The Syrian conflict began with protests and Arab spring pro-democracy rallies in 2011 and escalated into civil war the following year. Between 470,000–610,000 people are believed to have died in fighting that continues.