Khaberni - A new international arrest warrant was issued in Paris against Bashar al-Assad on charges of launching deadly chemical attacks in 2013, increasing to 3 the number of arrest warrants issued by French courts against the ousted and exiled Syrian president in Russia.
A judicial source told the French Press Agency today, Thursday, that this arrest warrant, issued on charges of complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes, was signed by Parisian investigating judges on July 29 last year, a few days after the first arrest warrant in this case was canceled.
The Court of Cassation had canceled on July 25 last year an arrest warrant issued in November 2023 on the basis of absolute immunity for a sitting head of state, as Assad was then still the president of Syria.
However, the highest court in the French judicial system authorized the issuance of other arrest warrants against Assad following his overthrow on December 8, 2024.
On the same day, the National Public Prosecutor's Office for Counter-Terrorism, specializing in crimes against humanity, requested the issuance of a new arrest warrant against Assad.
These chemical attacks attributed to the Syrian regime took place on August 5, 2013, in Daraa and Douma, resulting in 450 injuries, and on August 21, 2013, in Eastern Ghouta, resulting in the death of more than one thousand people from sarin gas, according to American intelligence.
Issues and charges
In this case, an arrest warrant was also issued on July 16 last year against Talal Makhlouf, the former commander of the 105th Brigade of the Syrian Republican Guard, according to a judicial source.
The arrest warrants issued in November 2023 also included Maher al-Assad, the ousted president's brother and the actual commander of the Fourth Division of the Syrian army at the time of the events, in addition to two senior officers, Ghassan Abbas and Bassam al-Hassan.
The first was issued on January 20, 2025, on charges of complicity in war crimes based on the bombing of a civilian residential area in Daraa (southwest Syria) in 2017.
The other was issued on charges of complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity on August 19 last year, related to the bombing of a press center in Homs (central Syria) in 2012, which resulted in the death of American reporter Marie Colvin and independent French photographer Remi Ochlik.
French journalist Edith Bouvier, British photographer Paul Conroy, and their Syrian translator Wael al-Omar were also injured in the incident.
In this case, the investigating judges in the unit for crimes against humanity also issued arrest warrants against six former high-ranking Syrian officials, including Maher al-Assad and the then Director General of Syrian Intelligence Ali Mamlouk.
