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Bashar al-Assad: French court confirms arrest warrant against Syrian leader

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Image description, President Bashar al-Assad has denied that Syrian government forces were involved in the 2013 chemical weapons attack.

  • Author, David Gritten
  • Role, BBC News

France’s highest appeals court has upheld an arrest warrant against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for alleged complicity in crimes, human rights and war crimes, lawyers say.

Last year, investigating judges called for the arrest of Assad and three others in connection with a deadly chemical weapons attack in Syria in 2013. Assad denied any involvement.

Anti-terror prosecutors questioned the validity of the French arrest warrant, arguing that the defendant enjoyed immunity as a sitting foreign head of state.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs in the original lawsuit called the Paris Court of Appeal’s decision to reject this argument “historic.”

“It is the first time that a national court has recognized that a sitting head of state does not enjoy complete personal immunity,” said Clemence Bectarte, Jeanne Sulzer and Clemence.

France is one of the countries where cases of crimes against humanity are admitted before its courts.

Syria is ravaged by a civil war that broke out after the Assad government responded to peaceful pro-democracy protests with deadly violence in 2011.

The conflict claimed the lives of half a million people and forced half the population to flee, including nearly six million refugees abroad.

In August 2013, a chemical weapons attack took place in the then opposition-held region of Ghouta on the outskirts of Damascus.

UN experts confirmed the use of rockets containing the nerve agent sarin, but were not asked to name those responsible.

Sarin, like other nerve agents, disrupts an enzyme that prevents muscle contractions. If the enzyme is stopped or not working properly, the muscles are constantly stimulated. If the muscles are constantly contracting, people may not be able to breathe.

Western powers said only Syrian government troops could have carried out the attacks. Assad denied the accusation and blamed rebel fighters.

The president subsequently ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention and agreed to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal. But investigators from the UN and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) blame government forces for a series of deadly chemical weapons attacks that have taken place since then.

Three years ago, survivors and the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SMC) filed a complaint with French investigating judges in Paris regarding the 2013 attack.

They claimed that crimes against humanity and war crimes had been committed, which meant that a French court could prosecute individuals on the basis of the principle of universal jurisdiction.

Last November, judges agreed and issued arrest warrants for Assad, his brother Maher, the commander of the Syrian army’s fourth armored division, General Ghassan Abbas, the director of the Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC), and General Bassam al-Hassan, a presidential adviser and liaison officer at the SSRC.

In their appeal, anti-terrorism prosecutors did not challenge the evidence but sought to lift the arrest warrant against the president. They argued that the immunity of sitting foreign heads of state should only be lifted for international tribunals such as the International Criminal Court (ICC).

On Wednesday, the Paris Court of Appeal said it had confirmed the validity of the arrest warrant.

“The prohibition on the use of chemical weapons is part of customary international law as a mandatory rule, and the international crimes dealt with by the judges cannot be considered part of the official duties of a head of state. They can therefore be separated from the sovereignty that is inherently linked to these duties,” it said in a statement.

“It sends a clear message that impunity for serious crimes will not be tolerated and the era when immunity could serve as a shield for impunity is over,” he added.

Syria is not a party to the Rome Statute, the treaty establishing the ICC, and does not recognize its jurisdiction.

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