By Samah Abdul Fattah | 2025-02-08

Ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad is now facing two French arrest warrants for his suspected complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity, over the 2017 death of a Franco-Syrian civilian and a 2013 chemical attack.

French investigating magistrates issued a new arrest warrant for al-Assad on January 20 for his role in ordering and enabling a June 7, 2017 airstrike that killed former French teacher Salah Abou Nabout in the southern city of Daraa.

Al-Assad arrived in Moscow in December and was granted asylum in Russia "out of humanitarian considerations," the BBC reported.

French magistrates had in November 2023 charged al-Assad and three top Syrian officials over August 2013 chemical attacks in Douma and Eastern Ghouta, outside Damascus.

The attacks "killed hundreds of civilians, including large numbers of children," according to Human Rights Watch.

The earlier warrant named al-Assad's brother Maher, who led the Syrian regime's 4th Division -- which was deeply embroiled in the Captagon trade -- and generals Ghassan Abbas and Bassam al-Hassan.

Chemical attacks verified

While al-Assad's regime consistently denied using chemical weapons, international investigators have documented multiple attacks, with some reports linking the Syrian regime's chemical stockpile to the Iranian regime.

An Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) fact-finding mission confirmed the use of the nerve agent sarin in a June 2017 attack on the opposition-held Idlib province city of Khan Sheikhun.

The OPCW is responsible for implementing the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which prohibits the use, development, production, stockpiling and transfer of chemical weapons.

An OPCW team later linked al-Assad's forces to multiple chemical attacks in 2017, including sarin bombings affecting at least 76 people in the Hama province town of al-Lataminah, CNN reported.

Iranian regime's role

Al-Assad's regime expanded its chemical weapons arsenal with the help of the Islamic Republic, using front companies to buy sophisticated equipment under the guise of civilian programs, per a 2012 Washington Post investigation.

A 2006 diplomatic cable revealed Tehran would provide Damascus with construction design and equipment to produce precursors for VX -- a highly toxic chemical warfare agent and nerve agent -- sarin and mustard gas, it said.

Iranian defense engineers were reportedly contracted to survey plant locations.

The new French warrant against al-Assad could lead to more legal actions, experts told Al-Fassel.

"Many are now willing to testify about the leadership's involvement in crimes against humanity, genocide, and use of prohibited weapons," Syrian lawyer Bashir al-Bassam said.

"The [French] case could create serious complications for Russia, which granted him asylum, and Iran, where many officials implicated in massacres have fled," Syrian journalist Mohammed al-Abdullah told Al-Fassel.