Khaberni - The Lebanese judiciary received a request from the French authorities requiring the tracking and arresting officials in the ousted Bashar al-Assad regime if they are found on Lebanese territory.
A prominent Lebanese judicial source told "Al Sharq Al Awsat" newspaper that the Public Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat received an official telegram from the French judiciary, containing a judicial request asking Lebanon to "track down Air Force Intelligence Commander General Jamil al-Hassan, National Security Office Director General Ali Mamlouk, and Director of the Air Force Intelligence Investigation Branch General Abdul Salam Mahmoud, and to conduct investigations and detain them if they are found in Lebanon, and to hand them over to the French authorities."
Continuation of prosecutions
The French request comes as a continuation of the prosecutions conducted by the French judiciary against Bashar al-Assad and the key figures of his regime, including the three aforementioned officers, for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, which led to the killing of French nationals.
The request also mentions the "killing of three French nationals of Syrian origin under torture during their detention by the Air Force Intelligence Service, and during their interrogation by the Director of Investigation in the Air Force Intelligence, Abdul Salam Mahmoud."
The source mentioned that Oueidat "instructed the Information Branch of the Internal Security Forces to conduct necessary investigations concerning this matter and to find out whether Hassan, Mamlouk, and Mahmoud are present in Lebanon and arrest them". Oueidat also requested, according to the judicial source, "to monitor these individuals’ entry and exit movements and whether they have entered Lebanon legally."
Lebanese numbers
Interestingly, according to the judicial source, the French request included "Lebanese phone numbers that communicate regularly with the aforementioned individuals, something validated through the monitoring of communication movements carried out by French authorities in their pursuit of high-ranking leaders in Assad's regime." The judicial source stressed that this matter "will be at the core of the follow-up and investigations that the Information Branch will conduct."
The French judiciary subsequently issued three successive in absentia arrest warrants against the deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, accusing him of "launching deadly chemical attacks in 2013, and colluding with senior security officials in crimes against humanity and war crimes."
