France’s top court annulled a French arrest warrant against former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad on Friday. The warrant had been issued before his removal, regarding chemical attacks in 2013 that resulted in numerous fatalities.

The Court of Cassation determined that there were no exceptions to presidential immunity, even in cases of alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

However, presiding judge Christophe Soulard noted that since Assad is no longer president following his overthrow by an Islamist-led group in December, “new arrest warrants may have been, or may be, issued against him,” indicating that the investigation could persist.

Human rights advocates had expected that the court might decide that immunity should not apply due to the seriousness of the charges, which would create a significant precedent in international law for holding alleged war criminals accountable.

French authorities issued the warrant for Assad in November 2023, citing his purported role in the command structure for a sarin gas attack that claimed over 1,000 lives, according to US intelligence, on August 4 and 5, 2013, in Adra and Douma, located near Damascus.

Assad faces accusations of complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity in this matter, although Syrian authorities at the time denied any involvement and attributed the blame to rebels.

The Court of Cassation maintained that Assad’s so-called “personal immunity,” which is granted due to his position, prevented him from being subjected to arrest warrants until he was ousted. It further stated that “functional immunity,” applicable to individuals performing specific state functions, could be revoked in cases where severe allegations of crime are present.

TOPSHOT – A portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is pictured with its frame broken, in a Syrian regime’s Political Security Branch facility on the outskirts of the central city of Hama, following the capture of the area by anti-government forces, on December 7, 2024.Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP) (Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AFP via Getty Images)

Thus, the court upheld the French judiciary’s indictment of the former governor of Syria’s Central Bank and former finance minister, Adib Mayaleh, for complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the financial support of the Assad government during the civil war.

Mayaleh acquired French nationality in 1993 and is known as Andre Mayard on his French passport.

Since the onset of Syria’s war in 2011, which began with the government’s harsh crackdown on anti-Assad protests, over half a million people have died, and millions have been displaced.

Assad’s removal on December 8, 2024, brought an end to his family’s rule of five decades.

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.

France’s highest court has annulled an arrest warrant for former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, which had been issued for complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity during the country’s civil war.

The Cour de cassation declared the warrant invalid under international law, which gives heads of state personal immunity from prosecution in foreign courts while they are in office, News.Az reports citing The Guardian.

The judges ruled there were no exceptions, but said their decision did allow for a new arrest warrant to be issued now Assad was no longer a head of state. Since December 2024, Assad has been living in exile in Russia after rebels led by Turkish-backed forces took control of Syria.

Mariana Pena, a senior legal counsel with the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI), said the ruling was a “missed opportunity” for the court to make an exception on the waiving of immunity for heads of state accused of the most serious crimes, but added the campaign to bring Assad to justice would continue.

A French court issued the international arrest warrant in November 2023 in response to two chemical weapons attacks in Syria. In the first, in August 2013, the banned gas sarin is believed to have killed more than 1,000 people, including hundreds of children, in the district of Ghouta, in eastern Damascus. In the second, in April 2018, 450 people were injured in the towns of Adra and Douma.

The case that led to the arrest warrant was brought by civil parties including survivors of the attacks, the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression and the OSJI.

Its cancellation was initially sought by France’s anti-terrorism office on the grounds of head of state immunity. Last year, the Paris court of appeal upheld the warrant following a request for annulment, only for the anti-terrorism office and the public prosecutors’ office to lodge a fresh appeal.

At the appeal hearing, the OSJI argued that immunity should not apply when leaders perpetrated grave crimes against their own population.

France has previously issued international arrest warrants for three other senior Syrian officials, including the former leader’s brother Maher al-Assad for complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Cour de Cassation did not rule on these warrants, which are still in effect.

The sarin attack in 2013 almost led to US intervention in Syria’s civil war. Barack Obama, then US president, had warned Assad that the use of chemical weapons would be a “red line”, but backed down from military action after Syria agreed to dismantle its chemical weapons.

News.Az

France’s highest court on Friday ruled that Syria’s ousted leader Bashar Assad had head of state immunity while he was in office and couldn’t be prosecuted on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The Cour de Cassation upheld Assad’s head-of-state immunity, but added that since he is no longer in office, “new arrest warrants may have been or may be issued against him for acts that may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity.”

The decision is a blow to activists who had hoped the court would set aside the immunity, a decision that could have had far-reaching consequences for other leaders accused of atrocities.

“From our side as a victim, this is a huge mistake. This will support another dictatorship to keep doing this kind of crime – they know they will enjoy immunity,” said Mazen Darwish, president of the Syrian Center for Media, which collected evidence of war crimes.

“It is a sad day for us,” Darwish said.

The president of the Cour de Cassation, Christophe Soulard, said in the ruling that 19 judges had declined to lift Assad’s immunity, which could have paved the way for his trial in absentia in France over the use of chemical weapons in Ghouta in 2013.

Human rights lawyers had sought to enable prosecution of leaders linked to atrocities while they are in power, not just when they leave.

But international law currently forbids it.

“Under current international law, crimes against humanity and war crimes are not exceptions to the principle of jurisdictional immunity for sitting foreign heads of state,” Soulard said.

Assad, the former leader of Syria now in exile in Russia, retained no lawyers for these charges and has denied that he was behind the chemical attacks.

“The court’s ruling is a missed opportunity for justice,” said Mariana Pena, a lawyer with the Open Society Justice Initiative, which helped bring the case to the court. But she said that the ruling “leaves the door open to the prosecution of Assad.”

The court also ruled on a case against a former Syrian government finance minister in Assad’s government, allowing that he could be prosecuted.

Adib Mayaleh’s lawyers have argued that he too had immunity under international law. That is to some a silver lining in the court’s ruling by establishing in France the right for courts to go after heads of state when they leave office and even current high-ranking officials.

“This is a huge step, but not an absolute victory in the fight against impunity,” said lawyer Clémence Witt, who with Jeanne Sulzer brought the case against Assad to the court.

She said that the French courts can now for the first time issue warrants for high-ranking officials currently in power with adequate evidence.

“Every official – except head of state, head of government and head of foreign affairs – can be prosecuted in France if we have evidence of genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity,” Witt said.

For more than 50 years, Syria was ruled by Hafez Assad and then his son Bashar.

During the Arab Spring, rebellion broke out against their tyrannical rule in 2011 across the country of 23 million people, igniting a brutal 13-year civil war that killed more than 500,000 people, according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights.

Millions more fled to Lebanon, Jordan, Türkiye and Europe.

The Assad dynasty manipulated sectarian tensions to stay in power, a legacy driving renewed violence in Syria against minority groups, despite promises that the country’s new leaders will carve out a political future for Syria that includes and represents all of its communities.

The International Criminal Court isn’t bound by head of state immunity and has issued arrests warrants for leaders accused of atrocities – like Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Gaza, and Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines.

The Syrian government denied in 2013 that it was behind the Ghouta attack, an accusation that the opposition rejected, because Assad’s forces were the only side in the brutal civil war to possess sarin.

Assad held onto power, aided militarily by Russia and Iranian-backed proxies, until late 2024, when a surprise assault by anti-regime forces swept into Aleppo and then Damascus, driving Assad to flee to safety to Russia on Dec. 8, 2024.

New warrants after Friday’s ruling in France could lay the groundwork for the former leader’s trial in absentia or potential arrest, if he travels outside Russia.

Any trial of Assad, whether in absentia or if he leaves Russia, would mean this evidence could then “be brought to light,” Pena said, including an enormous trove of classified and secret evidence amassed by the judges during their investigations.

Syrians often took great personal risk to gather evidence of war crimes.

Darwish said that in the aftermath of a chlorine gas attack in Douma, for example, teams collected witness testimonies, images of devastation and soil samples.

Others then tracked down and interviewed defectors to build a “chain of command” for the Syrian government’s chemical weapons production and use.

“We link it directly to the president himself, Bashar al-Assad,” he said.

Syria today remains beholden to many awful legacies of the Assad dynasty. Poverty, sectarianism, destruction and violence still haunt the country.

Syrian authorities are now investigating nearly 300 people for crimes during several days of fighting on the coast earlier this year.

The new interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa in Damascus have pledged to work with the United Nations on investigating further war crimes of the Assad government and the civil war.

While disappointed in the verdict in France, Darwish is working on 29 cases against Assad and other figures who have fled to Russia, the Gulf, Lebanon and Europe. He said that many Syrians hope Assad sits for a fair trial in Syria.

“It should be done in Damascus, but we need also a lot of guarantees that we will have a fair trial even for this suspect,” he said.

His organization has already received requests to bring to court war crimes accusations against those involved in recent bloodshed in southern Syria.

“So anyone, whatever his name, or the regime, or their authority, we will keep fighting this type of crime,” Darwish said.