French court upholds arrest warrant for Syria’s Bashar al-Assad
Al Jazeera
Counterterrorism prosecutors failed to have warrant annulled on grounds that al-Assad enjoys immunity as head of state.
A Paris appeals court has upheld the validity of an arrest warrant issued for the Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad over alleged complicity in war crimes committed during the country’s civil war, according to lawyers.
The judges ruled on Wednesday that the warrant, which French anti-terrorism prosecutors had sought to annul on the grounds that al-Assad enjoys immunity as a serving head of state, remains in force.
“This is a historic decision. It’s the first time a national court has recognised that a sitting head of state does not have total personal immunity” for their actions, said plaintiffs’ lawyers Clemence Bectarte, Jeanne Sulzer and Clemence Witt.
Mazen Darwish, director of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, said the decision “shows that there is no immunity when we are talking about crimes against humanity and using chemical weapons against civilians”.
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