In a landmark case against Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime, three Syrian officials have been sentenced by a Paris court to life in prison for war crimes.
A Paris court sentenced three high-ranking Syrian officials in absentia to life in prison Friday for complicity in war crimes in a landmark case against the regime of Syria’s President Bashar Assad and the first such case in Europe. The trial focused on the officials’ role in the alleged arrest, torture and killing in 2013 in Damascus of Mazen Dabbagh, a Franco-Syrian father, and his son Patrick.
Though the verdict was cathartic for plaintiffs, France and Syria do not have an extradition treaty, making the outcome largely symbolic. International arrest warrants for the three former Syrian intelligence officials — Ali Mamlouk, Jamil Hassan, and Abdel Salam Mahmoud — have been issued since 2018 to no avail. They are the most senior Syrian officials to go on trial in a European court over crimes allegedly committed during the country’s civil war.
Obeida Dabbagh said he hoped the trial would set a precedent for holding Assad accountable. 'Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have died. Even today, some live in fear and terror,' he said. Despite the defendants’ absence, the trial’s significance was underscored by Brigitte Herremans, a senior researcher at the Human Rights Centre of Ghent University. 'It’s very important that perpetrators from the regime side are held accountable, even if it’s mainly symbolic.
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