French court to rule on arrest warrant for Bashar Al-Assad over chemical attacks
Syria's President Bashar al-Assad speaks during a press conference with Iraq's Prime Minister in Damascus on July 16, 2023 (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
ALBAWABA - The Paris Court of Appeal will rule on a French arrest warrant for Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday. Assad may lose his immunity for participation in 2013 chemical assault on Syria.
The Investigative Chamber considered France's National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office's arrest warrant annulment request on May 15. AFP noted that incumbent heads of state have personal immunity in foreign tribunals, which prompted this request.
Since 2021, Paris Judicial Court judges from the Human Rights Crimes Unit have investigated the command chain of the chemical attacks on August 4-5, 2013, in Adra and Douma near Damascus, and on August 21, 2013, in Eastern Ghouta. U.S. intelligence sources reported approximately 1,000 casualties from these assaults.
Four arrest warrants for war crimes and crimes against humanity were issued last November after the inquiry. Besides Assad, the warrants target his brother Maher, who commands the Syrian Army's 4th Division, and two brigadier generals, Ghassan Abbas, head of Branch 450 at the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center, and Bassam Hassan, Assad's strategic affairs advisor and research center liaison
AFP reports that this may be the first foreign court arrest warrant for a sitting president.
The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office believes foreign tribunals like the ICC should remove immunity. Despite proof of Assad's participation in the 2013 chemical strikes, they feel a higher court should rule on the arrest warrant.
Syria is not a member of the International Criminal Court, therefore Assad, who succeeded his father Hafez in 2000, might rule forever.
On June 5, the Paris Court of Appeal decided against former Syrian central bank governor Adib Mayaleh, revoking his immunity due to his alleged crimes.
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