The Paris Court of Appeal confirmed today that the international arrest warrant issued by France for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for alleged complicity in war crimes during the Syrian civil war is valid and in force, lawyers in the case said. quoted by the Associated Press, BTA reports.
Jean Sulzer and Clemence Witt, lawyers representing the plaintiffs and non-governmental organizations that brought the case against the Syrian president in France, hailed the decision as "historic" and as "a huge step forward in the fight against impunity,", AP points out.
In May, French anti-terror prosecutors asked the Paris Court of Appeal to overturn Assad's arrest warrant, arguing his full immunity as acting head of state.
"For the first time, a national court has ruled that the personal immunity of an acting head of state is not complete," the lawyers told AP.
French judicial authorities issued arrest warrants in November for President Assad, his brother Maher Assad, who is the commander of the Fourth Mechanized Division, and two Syrian generals, Ghassan Abbas and Bassam al-Hassan, for alleged complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity. The charges against them include an alleged chemical attack carried out in 2013 against opposition-held suburbs of Damascus, the AP said.