French court targets Assad over 2013 chemical attacks
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – French judicial authorities issued on Thursday a new international arrest warrant against former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over deadly chemical attacks launched in 2013 near Damascus, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The warrant, the third of its kind issued by French courts against al-Assad, concerns the chemical attacks that targeted the areas of Eastern Ghouta and Douma in August 2013, where hundreds of civilians were killed by sarin gas suffocation, AFP reported.
The attacks in Eastern Ghouta, one of the deadliest of the Syrian conflict, drew widespread international condemnation at the time. They were part of a broader campaign during which several opposition-held areas were struck by chemical munitions. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) later confirmed the use of sarin gas in those attacks.
French judicial sources told The Independent that investigative judges in Paris signed the latest warrant on July 29 on charges of “complicity in crimes against humanity” and “complicity in war crimes.” The decision came just days after a French court annulled a previous warrant in the same case, according to AFP.
Two earlier French warrants also targeted al-Assad. One, issued on January 20, 2025, accused him of complicity in war crimes for bombing a civilian neighborhood in the southern city of Daraa in 2017. Another, dated August 19, 2025, charged him with complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity for the shelling of a media center in Homs in 2012, which killed American journalist Marie Colvin and French photojournalist Rémi Ochlik.
The latest decision reinforces France’s ongoing efforts to pursue accountability for crimes committed during Syria’s 14-year conflict, particularly those involving the use of chemical weapons. France, along with several European countries, recognizes universal jurisdiction for grave international crimes committed abroad.