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France issues new arrest warrant for Syria's Assad

France issues new arrest warrant for Syria's Assad

French investigators have issued an arrest warrant against ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad for alleged complicity in war crimes, particularly launching a deliberate attack on civilians, a legal source said late Tuesday.

The warrant was issued on January 20 as part of an investigation into the case of Salah Abou Nabour, a Franco-Syrian citizen, who was killed on June 7, 2017, in a bomb attack in Syria, the Telegraph reports.

This is the second arrest warrant issued by French judges for the former Syrian leader, who was overthrown in early December 2024 by rebel forces led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).


In November 2023, French judges had issued a first arrest warrant against Bashar al-Assad on charges of complicity in crimes against humanity and complicity in war crimes.

It followed a French investigation into chemical attacks in Douma and the Eastern Ghouta district in August 2013, which killed more than 1,000 people.

Assad's government has in the past denied using chemical weapons against its opponents in the civil war, which broke out in March 2011. /Telegraph