France issues arrest warrant for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Judicial sources told AFP that Assad is suspected of complicity in war crimes in attacks that the opposition blamed on his regime, which killed more than 1,400 people near Damascus in August 2013.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Photo: AFP

International arrest warrants were also issued for the capture of Maher, Assad's brother, the de facto head of an elite Syrian army unit, and two generals of the armed forces.

The unit of the Paris court dealing with crimes against humanity has been investigating chemical attacks since 2021. The investigation followed legal complaints filed by the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), the Open Social Justice Initiative (OSJI), and the Syrian Archives.

SCM chairman Mazen Darwish said of the arrest warrant for Assad: “An independent tribunal is recognizing that the chemical attack could not have happened if the Syrian president had not known about it, and that he must be held responsible.”

Darwish said the lawsuit against Assad and others is supported by eyewitness accounts and in-depth analysis of the Syrian military's chain of command.

In 2013, activists posted videos on YouTube showing the impact of the attack, including footage of dozens of dead bodies, many of them children, lying on the ground.

Other images showed unconscious children, people foaming at the mouth, and doctors seemingly giving them oxygen. These scenes sparked outrage and condemnation worldwide.

A subsequent United Nations report stated there was clear evidence of sarin gas use. Syria had agreed in 2013 to join the global monitoring body of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and to relinquish all chemical weapons.

The OPCW has since blamed the Damascus government for a series of chemical attacks during the civil war. Syria has denied the allegations, which have also sparked legal challenges in Germany and other European countries.

The Syrian civil war erupted in 2011 after Assad's crackdown on peaceful protests escalated into a bloody conflict. The fighting has killed more than half a million people and displaced half of Syria's population.

Bui Huy (according to AFP, France24, CNN)

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/phap-phat-lenh-bat-giu-tong-thong-syria-bashar-al-assad-post272609.html