Muhamad Yehia
A court in Paris has accused the overthrown Syrian ruler of complicity in war crimes in relation to a deadly attack on civilians in 2017.
Judges in France have reportedly issued a new arrest warrant against Syria’s deposed leader Bashar al-Assad for alleged complicity in war crimes linked to a barrel bomb attack on civilians in 2017 that killed a French-Syrian man.
A legal source with knowledge of the case told French outlets that the Paris Tribunal’s special unit for crimes against humanity and war crimes issued the mandate this week as part of a probe into the death of Salah Abou Nabout, who was killed when his home was struck during a bombing raid on Syria’s southern city of Daraa on 7 June 2017.
Al-Assad, who was ousted last month by a lightning rebel offensive and is now in exile in Russia, is held responsible for the attack in the warrant as “commander-in-chief of the armed forces”, the source said.
The French judges started investigating the death of Nabout in 2018, and that year issued arrest warrants for six senior Syrian army officials whom they suspected of following al-Assad’s orders and being complicit in war crimes related to the bombing
Omar Abou Nabout, the victim’s son, said he hoped that “a trial will take place and that the perpetrators will be arrested and judged, wherever they are”.
“This case represents the culmination of a long fight for justice, in which I and my family believed from the start,” he said in a statement.
It is the second arrest warrant issued against al-Assad by French judges, who filed a mandate against the deposed president in November 2023 over chemical attacks that killed more than 1,000 civilians in the city of Douma and the surrounding Eastern Ghouta region in 2013.
Al-Assad’s regime repeatedly denied using chemical weapons and barrel bombs, and insisted it had not carried out indiscriminate attacks on civilians during the nearly 14-year-long civil war.
Last week, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, travelled to Damascus to meet Syria’s de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Khan, who was invited to Syria by the transitional government, said the court wanted to support Syria’s authorities in their efforts “towards accountability for alleged crimes committed in the country”.
In recent years, there have been several legal efforts in European countries — including France, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands — to try Syrian state officials and anti-government militants for suspected war crimes and crimes against humanity.