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In addition to Bashar al-Assad, the warrants also target several high-ranking members of his regime.
Assad fled Syria with his family to Russia after being ousted by Islamist rebels (File Photo/Reuters)
French judicial authorities have issued arrest warrants for former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and six senior officials from his regime, according to AFP reports. The warrants relate to the alleged bombing of a rebel-held area in the Syrian city of Homs in 2012, which resulted in the deaths of two journalists. Lawyers announced the development on Tuesday.
The victims were renowned American journalist Marie Colvin, then 56, working for The Sunday Times of Britain, and 28-year-old French photojournalist Rémi Ochlik. Both were killed on February 22, 2012, in a targeted attack on an informal media centre in Homs, where international journalists were reporting on the siege of the city by Syrian government forces.
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French judicial authorities are treating the incident as both a potential war crime and a crime against humanity. The bombing also seriously injured other journalists, including British photographer Paul Conroy, French reporter Edith Bouvier, and Syrian translator Wael Omar.
In addition to Bashar al-Assad, the warrants also target several high-ranking members of his regime. These include his brother, Maher al-Assad, then the de facto head of Syria’s elite 4th Armoured Division, former intelligence chief Ali Mamlouk, and then-army chief of staff Ali Ayoub.
Assad fled Syria with his family to Russia after being ousted by Islamist rebels at the end of 2024. However, his current whereabouts remain unknown.
“The issuing of the seven arrest warrants is a decisive step that paves the way for a trial in France for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Bashar al-Assad’s regime,” said Clémence Bectarte, a lawyer for the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the parents of Rémi Ochlik. The FIDH stated that the journalists had entered the besieged city clandestinely to “document the crimes committed by Bashar al-Assad’s regime” and were victims of a “targeted bombing.”
This development comes just a month after France’s highest court, the Cour de cassation, annulled a previous arrest warrant for Assad. The court ruled that the warrant was invalid under international law, which grants heads of state immunity from prosecution in foreign courts while they are in office.
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