Arrest warrant issued for Syria’s Assad again
France has issued an arrest warrant for ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on charges of war crimes, particularly deliberate attacks on civilians, a legal source said on Tuesday (January 21) night.
The news agency Reuters reported on Wednesday (January 22).
The order was issued on January 20 as part of an investigation into the case of Salah Abu Nabour, a French-Syrian citizen who was killed in a bomb attack in Syria on June 7, 2017.
This is the second time that French judges have issued an arrest warrant against Assad.
In early December 2024, rebel forces led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) overthrew Assad.
In November 2023, French judges issued the first warrant against Bashar al-Assad on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes.
An arrest warrant was issued for Assad in August 2013 following a French investigation into the chemical weapons attacks in Douma and the Eastern Ghouta district, which killed more than 1,000 people.
However, the Assad government in Syria has denied using chemical weapons against the opposition in the civil war that began in March 2011.