Prosecutors ask France’s highest court to rule on validity of Syrian president’s arrest warrant

NICE, France — French prosecutors have asked the country’s highest court to rule on the validity of an international arrest warrant for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for alleged complicity in war crimes committed during the Syrian civil war, according to a statement released Tuesday.

Appeal Court judges ruled last week that an arrest warrant for Assad issued by France in November was valid and remains in force, rejecting prosecutors’ argument that as the acting head of state he enjoys absolute immunity.

Victims’ lawyers said the ruling was the first time a national court had found that the personal immunity of a serving head of state was not absolute, and they hailed it as a historic ruling and “a giant step forward in the fight against impunity.”

However, prosecutors filed an appeal to the Court of Cassation, calling it “legally necessary” and demanding that the highest court consider the issue of the personal immunity of the serving head of state in the context of allegations of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

Lawyers representing victims and non-governmental organizations that filed a complaint against the Syrian president in France say the prosecutors’ appeal is “unfounded.”

“The opposition of the French Prosecutor General’s Office to the Supreme Court once again threatens the victims’ ongoing efforts to finally bring Bashar al-Assad to justice before an independent court,” Paris bar lawyers Jeanne Sulzer and Clemence Witt said in a statement to The Associated Press.

In addition to the international arrest warrant for Assad, French justice last November also issued arrest warrants for his brother Maher Assad, commander of the 4th Armored Division, as well as two Syrian generals, Ghassan Abbas and Bassam al-Hassan, for alleged complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The crimes include a 2013 chemical attack on a then-opposition-held suburb of Damascus. Victims of the attack said France’s decision to issue the warrants was a reminder of the horrors of Syria’s civil war.

The arrest warrants for the president’s brother and two generals were not appealed.

Four men — two Assad brothers and two generals — could be arrested and taken to France for questioning, lawyers say, as investigations into the 2013 attacks in Eastern Ghouta and Douma continue.

While President Assad is unlikely to face trial in France, international arrest warrants for a sitting world leader are very rare and send a strong signal about his leadership at a time when some countries, especially Arab ones, have welcomed him back into the diplomatic fold.

In the August 2013 attacks on Douma and Eastern Ghouta, more than 1,000 people were killed and thousands injured.

The investigation into the attacks – conducted under universal jurisdiction in France by a special unit of the Court of Justice in Paris – was opened in 2021 in response to a case filed by the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression on behalf of survivors.

The Assad government has been widely held by the international community responsible for the sarin gas attack in the then-opposition-held Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta. The Syrian government and its allies have denied responsibility and said the attack was carried out by opposition forces trying to press for foreign military intervention.

The United States threatened military retaliation after the attack, and then-President Barack Obama said that Assad’s use of chemical weapons would be a “red line” for Washington. But the U.S. public and Congress feared a new war as the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq became a quagmire.

Washington concluded a deal with Moscow under which Syria would give up its chemical weapons stockpiles.

Syria says it has eliminated its chemical arsenal under a 2013 deal. But watchdog groups continue to say Syrian government forces have carried out chemical attacks since then.

In addition to France, in 2020 and 2021, German authorities received complaints regarding chemical attacks in Eastern Ghouta in 2013 and in Khan Shaykhun in 2017. These complaints were received on the basis of witness statements, visual evidence and information about the chain of command of entities suspected of carrying out the attacks.