Prosecutors have asked France's highest court to review the legality of a French arrest warrant for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over deadly chemical attacks on Syrian soil in 2013.
According to Syria's opposition, one attack on the rebel-held suburbs of Damascus in August 2013 killed around 1,400 people – including more than 400 children.
Prosecutors said Tuesday they had made the request to the Paris Court of Cassation on judicial grounds on Friday – two days after another appeals court upheld an arrest order issued in November.
The Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), lawyers' association Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) and the Syrian Archive – an organisation documenting human rights violations in Syria – filed the initial complaint.
However, SCM head Mazen Darwish criticised Tuesday's move, saying: "We view [the] filing of the appeal as a political manoeuvre aimed at protecting dictators and war criminals".
Breaking:
— Mazen.Darwish -مازن درويش (@mazenadarwish3) July 2, 2024
The Public Prosecutor's Office filed an appeal before the Court of Cassation against the decision of the Paris Court of Appeal, which approved the arrest warrant for Bashar al-Assad.
SCM Director Mazen Darwish told Agence France-Presse (AFP):
"For us, this is neither… pic.twitter.com/YbYUM1RNjW
Legal question
"This decision is by no means political. It is about having a legal question resolved," the prosecutor's office at the court said in a statement.
France is believed to be the first country to issue an arrest warrant for a sitting foreign head of state.
Investigative magistrates specialising in cases of crimes against humanity issued the warrant after several rights groups filed a complaint against Assad for his role in the series of alleged chemical attacks on 4, 5 and 21 August 2013.
However, prosecutors from a unit specialising in the investigation of "terrorist" attacks have sought to annul it, although they do not question the grounds for such an arrest.
They argue that immunity for foreign heads of state should only be lifted for international prosecutions, such as ones brought to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Alongside Assad, the warrants target his brother Maher – the de-facto head of the Syrian army's elite fourth division – and two generals, Ghassan Abbas and Bassam al-Hassan.
To date, the anti-terror prosecutors have only contested the warrant for Bashar al-Assad's arrest.
(With newswires)
