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FRANCE has issued an arrest warrant for Syrian president Bashar al-Assad over chemical attacks that killed 1,000 people in 2013.
The international warrant accuses Putin’s dictator pal of complicity in crimes against humanity after the brutal attacks in Syria’s capital.
Warrants have also been issued for three of Assad’s generals for gassing their own citizens.
Legal sources in France confirmed on Wednesday that investigating judges considered there is enough evidence to bring the men to trial.
“The warrants have been issued in connection with war crimes and crimes against humanity, that is to say chemical weapon attacks in August 2013,” said one of the Paris sources.
Al-Assad – who is 58 and the husband of London-born Asma Al-Assad, 48 – has been involved in a civil war which has claimed the lives of thousands since 2011.
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The chemical weapons attacks in the Damascus suburbs of Douma and Ghouta in 2013 killed over 1,000 people as both areas were hit by rockets filled with sarin.
Syrian civilians who fled to France filed a complaint about the use of sarin gas attacks which left more than a thousand dead, mainly women and children.
A lead plaintiff, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “If the regime doesn’t find you to kill you, it will go after your family or even your neighbors.
“So, if I say that it was me who filed the complaint, I am putting too many people in danger.”
The Ghouta attack was the deadliest use of chemical weapons since the Iran-Iraq War, with UN investigators saying there was “clear and convincing evidence” of the use of sarin.
Multiple international agencies have since said that Syrian Army forces led by Al-Assad and his generals delivered the sarin using rockets.
Getting them to Paris for trial is extremely unlikely, but the legal source said the warrants highlight France’s role in holding international war criminals accountable.
The names will be placed on an Interpol red list, meaning travel outside Syria will be extremely dangerous for them.
Beyond Al-Assad, the three names on the warrant are family members Maher and Bassam Al-Assad, and Ghassan Abbas. None have yet commented on the legal action in France.
