Three others also subject to warrants over use of sarin gas in two attacks in Syria in August 2013 that killed more than 1,000 people
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.
