(Paris) The Paris Court of Appeal’s general prosecutor told AFP on Tuesday that it had referred the matter to the Court of Cassation regarding the French arrest warrant for Bashar al-Assad, accused of complicity in crimes against humanity for the 2013 chemical attacks in Syria, so that it could “settle” a “legal question.”
“Without calling into question the substance of the case, in particular the existence of serious or consistent evidence against Bashar al-Assad that makes his participation likely” in these deadly attacks, the public prosecutor’s office considers “that it is necessary for the position taken by the investigating chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal on the question of the personal immunity of a sitting head of state for offences of this nature to be examined by the highest court of the judicial order”.
“This decision has no political character. It is about deciding a legal question beyond the specific case,” the public prosecutor’s office, which filed the appeal on June 28, stressed to AFP.
This arrest warrant was issued in November 2023 by two investigating judges from Paris, who have been investigating since 2021 the chain of command of the chemical attacks of August 2013 near Damascus, which according to American intelligence left more than 1,000 dead.
The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat) challenged the validity of this arrest warrant on appeal, in the name of the absolute immunity enjoyed by heads of state in office before the courts of foreign countries. A practice of international law based on mutual respect for sovereignty.
But on June 26, the investigating chamber sided with the analysis of the civil parties by rejecting immunity.
The appeals court considered that the crimes denounced, described as complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity, “cannot be considered as part of the official functions of a head of state.”
The public prosecutor’s appeal has caused confusion among the civil parties.
“This appeal once again threatens the victims’ efforts to have Bashar al-Assad finally tried before an independent court,” reacted Mit is Jeanne Sulzer and Clémence Witt, lawyers for victims and four civil party NGOs – Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), Open Society Justice Initiative, Syrian Archive and Civil Rights Defenders.
“We see this appeal as a political maneuver aimed at protecting dictators and war criminals,” SCM president Mazen Darwish told AFP.
Me Clémence Bectarte expressed her “immense disappointment” for the seven victims they represent, “who had hoped that the prosecution would stop there” and that it would “finally stand by their side”.