The French anti-terrorism prosecutor’s workplace says France has issued arrest warrants for 3 high-ranking Syrian intelligence officers
PARIS — France has issued arrest warrants for 3 high-ranking Syrian intelligence officers accused of complicity in crimes towards humanity within the deaths of a father and son who disappeared a decade in the past, the French anti-terrorism prosecutor’s workplace stated Wednesday.
In an acknowledgement that there was little chance the Syrian males could be extradited to France, the prosecutor’s workplace stated a trial within the case might proceed with out them in a Paris legal court docket. A trial date has not been set.
France’s anti-terrorism prosecutors additionally deal with instances involving potential crimes towards humanity. The French justice system can tackle instances when French nationality is concerned. Two non-governmental organizations that filed an October 2016 criticism with a relative recognized the victims as Mazzen Dabbagh and his son Patrick, who’ve each Syrian and French nationality.
The formal accusations got here after a years-long investigation into the deaths. The three Syrians had been charged with upsetting crimes towards humanity, giving directions to commit them and permitting subordinates to commit them by means of the alleged arrest, torture and killing of the daddy and son, the French prosecutor’s workplace stated in an announcement.
The intelligence officers additionally had been accused of confiscating the home of the victims and their household for the good thing about Syria and placing Syria’s air pressure intelligence companies on the disposal of the individuals who carried out the killings.
The NGOs recognized the Syrian defendants within the case as Ali Mamlouk, head of the Syrian secret companies, Jamil Hassan, director of Syrian air pressure intelligence and Abdel Salam Mahmoud, an investigations official at Damascus’ Mezzah army airport, the place a detention middle is regarded as situated.
“It is a nice victory for my household and for all Syrian victims that in any case these years of fight fact surfaces,” Obeida Dabbagh, the brother and uncle of the victims, was quoted as saying in a joint assertion issued by three NGOs: the Worldwide Federation for Human Rights, the Syrian Heart for Media and Freedom of Expression, and the League of Human Rights.
Dabbagh requested for the trial to start out rapidly.