A French court believes that Syrian leader Assad may not have immunity. The other day, the court confirmed the warrant for his arrest

The Court of Appeal of Paris, when arguing the legality of the warrant for the arrest of the acting president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, motivated it by the fact that he had committed international crimes, thereby removing himself from immunity.

Lawyers of the victims and human rights organizations, which are participants in the process, told Babel about this motivation of the court at a press conference on Thursday. Babel also received the motivational part of the decision.

According to it, the court believes that the purpose of the presidentʼs personal immunity is to perform representative functions at the international level.

"The use of chemical weapons by the head of state against his own population does not fall under the definition of presidential duties. Therefore, Bashar Assad himself removed himself from the effect of personal immunity when he did not behave like the head of state," the document says.

In addition, the court noted that the ban on the use of chemical weapons is part of international law, and its use is an international crime, therefore it cannot be considered as part of the official functions of the head of state.

In addition, the court referred to several resolutions of the UN Security Council regarding the former Yugoslavia Rwanda and Sierra Leone where it noted that "humanity stood for the values of humanity and that personal immunity (of the president) cannot be equated with impunity." In addition, the UN Security Council has repeatedly called for those responsible for the chemical attacks in Syria to be prosecuted, and those calls have never mentioned immunities that could prevent an investigation.

The court also noted that apparently Syria would never prosecute Bashar al-Assad for these crimes, and that it would never waive the personal immunity of its president, and since no international court has jurisdiction to consider Assadʼs responsibility (Syria is not a member of the International Criminal Court), therefore, the court approved the warrant for Assadʼs arrest.

Prosecutors have 4 days to appeal the decision in the Supreme Court. If this does not happen, France will obviously turn to Intepol to issue a red card to Assad.

• In November 2023, France issued international arrest warrants for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, his brother Magher al-Assad, and two more of their influential associates — the director of the Syrian Research Center (SSRC) branch, General Hassan Abbas, and the liaison officer between the presidential palace and the SSRC, General Bassam al- Hassan Suddi.
• All of them, according to the investigation, are involved in chemical weapons attacks on Syrian cities controlled by the opposition in the summer of 2013. Then more than a thousand people, including hundreds of children, died from chlorine and sarin poisoning. The Paris court qualified these actions as crimes against humanity.
• Bashar al-Assad is the current president, so he has immunity that protects him from detention and arrest. In May 2023, the French Anti-Terrorism Prosecutorʼs Office even asked the Paris Court of Appeal to decide on the cancellation of the warrant for Assadʼs arrest, saying that he has absolute immunity as the current head of state. The prime ministers and foreign ministers of Syria have the same immunity.
• On June 26, 2024, it became known that the Court of Appeal of Paris confirmed the international arrest warrant for Syrian President Bashar Assad. If France proves the legality of the warrant for Assadʼs arrest, it will open the way to pursue other dictators.