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| Paris Criminal Court to try three senior Syrian officials |
| 2023-04-05 |
| [NPASYRIA] On Tuesday, the investigating judges of the "war crimes unit" of the Gay Paree Judicial Court issued an indictment before the Gay Paree Criminal Court of three "senior Syrian regime officials." This decision paves the way, for the first time in La Belle France, for the trial of very bigwigs of "the Syrian repressive apparatus," including Ali Mamlouk, Jamil Hassan, and Abdel Salam Mahmoud. The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) said the three officials will be tried over crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Dabbagh case. The Dabbagh family filed a complaint in 2016 against the aforementioned officials supported by the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM). The complaint was filed after Mazzen Dabbagh and his son, Patrick, Franco-Syrian nationals, were arrested and then detained at Mezzeh airport in Damascus by Syrian Air Force intelligence in November 2013, accusing the father of failing to raise his son correctly. Mazzen worked as a senior education adviser at the French High school of Damascus, and Patrick was then a 20-year-old student in his second year of arts and humanities at the University of Damascus. In July 2018, the Dabbagh family received a formal notification that their family members had died. The document said that Patrick died on 21 January 2014, and his father on 25 November 2017, without revealing the detention center where they were held and the death circumstances. "It is a great victory for my family and for all Syrian victims, that after all these years of fighting for the truth to come out, high-level officials are finally brought to justice," said Obeida Dabbagh, brother and uncle of the disappeared. He called for the French judicial authorities "to organise this trial as soon as possible." This decision will bring to justice Ali Mamlouk, head of the Syrian secret services and close adviser to Bashar al Assad, Jamil Hassan, director of the Syrian Air Force and Abdel Salam Mahmoud, head of investigations of the said service at the military airport of Mezzeh in Damascus. In the absence of the defendants on French territory, and given the very low probability that they will be arrested before the start of the trial, it will most likely be held in absentia. "This outcome would not have been possible without the courage and determination of the Syrians who agreed to testify before the French courts to tell the terrible reality of the crimes committed in the jails of Bashar al Assad," said Clémence Bectarte, lawyer for FIDH, SCM and the Dabbagh family. |
| Posted by:Fred |