A court in Damascus officially issued an arrest warrant for former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad in September of this year. This was reported by local and international media.
The accusations are linked to bloody clashes that began in 2011 in Syria's Dar'a province and subsequently engulfed the entire country. The forceful suppression of the protests that spring not only led to the deaths of hundreds of civilians, but also subsequently dragged Syria into decades of suffering and bloody war.
As reported by the Syrian news agency Sana, the victims' families and relatives have filed an official lawsuit. Asad is accused of premeditated murder, torture, and illegal deprivation of liberty.
The Syrian Supreme Court stated that this arrest warrant also creates an opportunity for Assad to be put on international wanted list through Interpol. This means that the process of initiating proceedings against him has entered an even more serious stage.
It is worth noting that although the demonstrations in Darya in 2011 initially expressed only peaceful demands, the entry of the army with armored vehicles and fire by security forces resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people. These events subsequently paved the way for a large-scale civil war.
Assad ruled Syria from 2000 to December 2024, but fled to Russia after the rebels came to power last December. He and his family received political asylum in Moscow.
French courts have also issued several rulings around his name. In particular, in 2013, a warrant was issued in connection with the use of chemical weapons, but then the decision was canceled due to Assad's immunity as president. Only in January 2025, after Assad's removal from power, was he issued an arrest warrant for crimes against humanity in France.
At the same time, international human rights organizations have for years made terrible accusations against Assad's regime. Using the example of the "Sednaya" prison, it was noted that between 2011 and 2018, more than 30,000 prisoners died due to torture, deprivation of medical care, and starvation.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also reacted to this news. According to him, Assad "has been hiding in Moscow since last year and is connected with various criminal structures." Zelenskyy emphasized that "it is a historical irony that the world's largest criminals are finding refuge in the capital of impunity."
Thus, Bashar al-Assad, who ruled Syria for more than a quarter of a century, is approaching the stage of historical accountability. The charges against him are expected to be an important test for human rights and international justice.
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