The Paris Court of Appeal sent the arrest warrant against the Syrian President, accused of complicity in crimes against humanity for the 2013 chemical attacks in Syria, to the Supreme Court.
The decision to take a position on the case against Bashar al-Assad is the result of a “legal decision” on a “legal question”, the court told Agence France-Presse this Tuesday.
“Without calling into question the merit of the case, in particular the existence of serious or corroborating evidence against (President) Bashar al-Assad that makes participation likely” in these attacks, the Prosecutor’s Office considers “that it is necessary that the position taken by the Paris Court of Appeal on the issue of personal immunity of a serving head of state for crimes of this nature be examined by the system’s highest court judicial”.
“This decision does not have any political character. The objective is to resolve a legal issue that goes beyond the case in question,” the Public Ministry, which filed the appeal, told France-Presse. on June 28th.
The arrest warrant was issued in November 2023 by two investigating judges in Paris, who have been investigating since 2021 the chain of command of the August 2013 chemical attacks near Damascus, which, according to the secret services north -Americans, killed more than a thousand people.
On appeal, the French National Anti-Terrorism Court challenged the validity of this arrest warrant based on the absolute immunity enjoyed by acting Heads of State before the courts of foreign countries.
It is a practice of international law based on mutual respect for sovereignty.
However, on June 26, the Court of Instruction agreed with the analysis and excluded immunity.
The Court of Appeal has now considered that the crimes reported, qualified as complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity, “cannot be considered as forming part of the official functions of a Head of State”.
The appeal filed by the Public Ministry was received with incomprehension.
“This appeal threatens, once again, the victims’ efforts to have Bashar al-Assad finally tried by an independent court,” said Jeanne Sulzer and Clémence Witt, lawyers for the victims and four organizations non-governmental: the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), the Open Society Justice Initiative, the Syrian Archive and Civil Rights Defenders.
“We see this resource as a political maneuver to protect dictators and war criminals,” SCM president Mazen Darwish told AFP.
Lawyer Clémence Bectarte expressed the “immense disappointment” of the seven victims she represents, “who expected the Public Ministry to stick around”.
