France: France has issued an arrest warrant for Syria’s president, Mr. Bashar al-Assad, over using banned chemical weapons against civilians in Syria.
The French judicial department has ordered the arrest warrant for Syria’s president, his brother, Mr. Maher, and military generals Mr. Ghassan Abbas and Mr. Bassam al-Hassan. As per the reports, they were charged with complicity in crimes against humanity and complicity in war crimes.
According to the rights group Civil Rights Defenders, Mr. Maher al-Assad heads a Syrian military unit; meanwhile, Mr. Ghassan Abbas and Mr. Bassam al-Hassan work with a Syrian research agency suspected of developing chemical weapons.
The arrest warrant comes after a criminal probe into chemical attacks in the town of Douma and the district of Eastern Ghouta in August 2013, which killed more than 1,000 people.
The Syrian head of state, whose forces violently suppressed protests starting in 2011, has received the first-ever international arrest warrant issued against him. United Nations experts have classified his actions as war crimes.
Mr. Mazen Darwish, the lawyer and founder of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), mentioned that these arrest warrants are the initial ones issued concerning the chemical weapons attack in Ghouta. The SCM, which initiated the case in France, brought this significant development to light, Mr. Darwish added.
The lawyer expressed that the ruling stands as “a victory for the victims, their families, and the survivors” of the 2013 chemical assault. He sees it as a stride toward achieving “justice and lasting peace in Syria.”
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