Three Syrian regime dignitaries sentenced to life imprisonment for complicity in crimes against humanity

Absent at the trial, the three men were tried in absentia at the Paris Assize Court for having played a role in the deaths of two Franco-Syrians.

A victory in the “fight against impunity”. Three senior officials of the Syrian regime, tried at the Paris Assize Court for complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes, were sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday May 24. Ali Mamlouk, former head of the National Security Bureau, the highest intelligence body in Syria, Jamil Hassan, former director of the Air Force Intelligence Services, and Abdel Salam Mahmoud, former director of the investigation branch of these services were thus found guilty by the court, which ordered the maintenance of the effects of the international arrest warrants targeting them.

After the verdict was announced, the audience in the room stood up and applauded. “This is the first trial to judge and convict such senior officials of the Syrian regime for complicity in crimes against humanity”greeted at the exit the lawyer Clémence Bectarte, who defended several civil parties in this case. “It is a verdict that resonates for hundreds of thousands of Syrians who are still waiting for justice”she added.

The three men, who are probably still in Syria, were absent from the trial and therefore tried in absentia, a possibility offered in the French judicial system. They also did not appoint any lawyer to defend them at the hearing. If, in the future, they were arrested, they could either acquiesce in the sentence or object, which would lead to a new trial, in first instance and in their presence this time.

They were convicted for having played a role, due to their place in the hierarchical chain, in the forced disappearance and death of Mazzen Dabbagh and his son Patrick. These two Franco-Syrians were arrested in Damascus in 2013 and transferred to the detention center at Mezzeh airport, run by the feared Air Force intelligence services. They gave no further sign of life until they were declared dead in August 2018.