Assad is in danger with a new war crimes arrest warrant in Syria – charged with 2017 bombing

Two French judges issued yesterday an arrest warrant against the overturned president for co-operation in war crimes, judging her former dictator responsible as “the supreme commander of the armed forces” for a bombing in Deraa in 2017, where a civilian was killed. The French Agency today received knowledge of this arrest warrant from a source adjacent to the case. This is the second arrest warrant against Bashar al-Assad issuing French judges from the crime department against the Paris court humanity. CORVERSE After 13 years of civil war that left more than 500,000 dead, armed groups led by the radical Islamist organization Hayat Tahrir al Sam (HTS) captured Damascus on 8 December and expelled Bashar al-Assad who fled to Russia. The Assad regime was charged with crimes during the civil war. The issuing of this warrant follows a supplementary indictment of the national counter-terrorism prosecutor (Pnat), requesting his extradition, according to the same source. According to the investigation, Pnat considers that Bashar al-Assad, no longer acting president, no longer benefits from immunity. CORVERSE This warrant was issued following investigations found that Salah Abu Nabut, a 59-year-old with French and Syrian citizenship, a former French professor, was killed on June 7, 2017 after his house was bombarded by Syrian Army helicopters. French justice believes Bashar al Assad ordered and provided the means for this attack, according to the adjacent source to the case. At the expense of six senior officers of the Syrian army arrest warrants have already been issued for accessory to war crimes, as part of this judicial investigation launched in 2018. “This case represents the culmination of a long-standing struggle for justice, in which me and my family believed from the beginning,” said Omar Abu Nabut, the victim’s son, expressing hope that “a trial will be held and that the perpetrators will be arrested and tried wherever they are.” In November 2023, a first arrest warrant was issued against Bashar al-Assad for attacks attributed to his regime on 5 August in Andra and Douma (450 injured) and on 21 August 2013 in Eastern Utah, where more than a thousand people, according to US intelligence, were killed by sarin gas.