French judges have ordered senior officials of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria to stand trial for collusion in crimes against humanity, a first in France, according to court documents seen by AFP Tuesday.
The
order, signed last Wednesday, says the officials, all senior advisors to Assad,
are charged with complicity in crimes against humanity, and war crimes.
They are
Ali Mamlouk, head of the National Security Bureau of the Ba'ath party, Jamil
Hassan, former head of the Syrian Air Force Intelligence Directorate and Abdel
Salam Mahmoud, another Air Force intelligence officer.
French
prosecutors believe the trio, who are not expected to show up for the trial or
have lawyers represent them, are responsible for the deaths of two
French-Syrian nationals, Mazzen Dabbagh and his son Patrick, who were arrested
in 2013.
France
has issued international arrest warrants for the three.
A
preliminary investigation into possible forced disappearances and acts of
torture constituting crimes against humanity was launched in 2015 after the
family of the two filed a complaint, which widened into a full-blown probe in
2016 and led to international arrest warrants two years later.
Mazzen
Dabbagh, pedagogical advisor at the French school in Damascus, and Patrick
Dabbagh, who was studying in the literature and humanities faculty at Damascus
university, were arrested in November 2013 by officers identifying themselves
as members of the Air Force intelligence services.
'Historic
decision'
According
to Mazzen Dabbagh's brother-in-law Obeida Dabbagh, who was also arrested but
released two days later, the two were taken to Mezzeh prison, believed to be
the government's main torture centre.
They
were not heard from again, and 2018 the government declared them dead, dating
Patrick's death to 2014 and his father's to 2017.
According
to witness statements collected by French investigators and the Commission for
International Justice and Accountability, an NGO, they were beaten with iron
bars on the soles of their feet, subjected to electric shocks and had their
fingernails torn out.
The French
investigating judges said it "seems sufficiently established" that
they were subjected to torture "so intense that it killed them".
Their
house was confiscated and later rented to Hassan for around 30 euros ($32) per
year, a fact that makes him an accomplice to war crimes, according to the
judges.
Obeida
Dabbagh welcomed the trial order, telling AFP it signalled to the Syrian
government that "one day the impunity will end".
The
International Federation for Human Rights, an NGO, called the indictment
"a historic decision".
While
this is the first time the French judiciary prosecutes Syrian officials for
serious crimes, neighbouring Germany has already brought similar cases to
court.
In
January of last year a German court sentenced a former Syrian colonel to life
in jail for crimes against humanity in the first global trial over
state-sponsored torture in Syria.
Anwar
Raslan, 58, was found guilty of overseeing the murder of 27 people and the
torture of 4,000 others at the Al-Khatib detention centre in Damascus in 2011
and 2012.
https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20230404-france-to-try-senior-assad-allies-for-crimes-against-humanity-in-syria
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