PARIS, Nov 15 (Reuters) - French judges have issued arrest warrants for Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, his brother Maher al-Assad, and two other senior officials over the use of banned chemical weapons against civilians in Syria, a judicial source said on Wednesday.
It is the first international arrest warrant that has been issued for the Syrian head of state, whose forces responded to protests that began in 2011 with a brutal crackdown that U.N. experts have said amount to war crimes.
It is the first time international arrest warrants have been issued over the chemical weapons attack in Ghouta in 2013, says Mazen Darwish, lawyer and founder of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), which filed the case in France.
In October, French judges issued warrants for two former defence ministers over a 2017 bomb that killed a French-Syrian man at his home in Daraa.
Reporting by Layli Foroudi and Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Benoit Van Overstraeten and Richard LoughOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Persons:
Bashar al, Assad, Maher al, Mazen Darwish, Darwish, Layli Foroudi, Dominique Vidalon, Benoit Van Overstraeten, Richard Lough
Organizations:
Eastern Ghouta, Syrian Center for Media, United Nations, Organisation, Chemical Weapons, Thomson
Locations:
Syria, Douma, Eastern, Syrian, Ghouta, France, Daraa