France's top court annuls arrest warrant against Syria's Assad

PARIS - France's highest court Friday annulled a French arrest warrant against Syria's ex-president Bashar al-Assad - issued before his ouster - over 2013 deadly chemical attacks.

The Court of Cassation ruled there were no exceptions to presidential immunity, even for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

But its presiding judge, Christophe Soulard, added that, as Assad was no longer president after an Islamist-led group toppled him in December, "new arrest warrants can have been, or can be, issued against him" and as such the investigation into the case could continue.

Human rights advocates had hoped the court would rule that immunity did not apply because of the severity of the allegations, which would have set a major precedent in international law towards holding accused war criminals to account.

They said that, in this regard, it was a missed opportunity.

"This ruling represents a setback for the global fight against impunity for the most serious crimes under international law," said Mazen Darwish, the head of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, a civil party to the case.

French authorities issued the warrant against Assad in November 2023 over his alleged role in the chain of command for a sarin gas attack that killed more than 1,000 people, according to US intelligence, on August 4 and 5, 2013 in Adra and Douma outside Damascus.

Assad is accused of complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity in the case. Syrian authorities at the time denied involvement and blamed rebels.

UNIVERSAL JURISDICTION

The French judiciary tackled the case under the principle of universal jurisdiction, whereby a court may prosecute individuals for serious crimes committed in other countries.

An investigation - based on testimonies of survivors and military defectors, as well as photos and video footage - led to warrants for the arrest of Assad, his brother Maher who headed an elite army unit, and two generals.

Public prosecutors approved three of the warrants, but issued an appeal against the one targeting Assad, arguing he should have immunity as a head of state.

The Paris Court of Appeal in June last year however upheld it, and prosecutors again appealed.

But in December, Assad's circumstances changed.

He and his family fled to Russia, according to Russian authorities, after Islamist-led fighters seized power from him.

In January, French investigating magistrates issued a second arrest warrant against Assad for suspected complicity in war crimes for a bombing in the Syrian city of Deraa in 2017 that killed a French-Syrian civilian.

'GREAT VICTORY'

The Court of Cassation said Assad's so-called "personal immunity", granted because of his office, meant he could not be targeted by arrest warrants until his ouster.

But it ruled that "functional immunity", which is granted to people who perform certain functions of state, could be lifted in the case of accusations of severe crimes.

Thus it upheld the French judiciary's indictment in another case against ex-governor of the Central Bank of Syria and former finance minister, Adib Mayaleh.

He has been accused of complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity over alleged funding of the Assad government during Syria's civil war.

Mayaleh obtained French nationality in 1993, and goes by the name Andre Mayard on his French passport.

Darwish, the Syrian lawyer, said that part of the court's ruling was however a "great victory".

"It establishes the principle that no agent of a foreign state, regardless of the position they hold, can invoke their immunity when international crimes are at stake," he said.

Syria's war has killed more than half a million people and displaced millions from their homes since its eruption in 2011 with the then-government's brutal crackdown on anti-Assad protests.

Assad's fall on 8 December 2024 ended his family's five-decade rule.