French judges have ordered three senior members of the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad to stand trial for collusion in crimes against humanity over the deaths of two French Syrian men.
The order, signed last Wednesday, says the three senior al-Assad advisers are charged with complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes. They are Ali Mamlouk, head of the National Security Bureau of the Baath party, Jamil Hassan, former head of the Syrian Air Force Intelligence Directorate, and Abdel Salam Mahmoud, another air force intelligence officer. France has issued international arrest warrants for the three.
The trial will be the first in France related to the Syrian regime but not the first in Europe, where Syrian refugees have drawn on the principle of universal jurisdiction to bring suspected war criminals to account. The International Federation for Human Rights called the indictment “a historic decision.”
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