Why did France issue arrest warrant for Syrian President Bashar al Assad?

France has issued arrest warrants for Syrian President Bashar al Assad, his brother Maher al Assad and two other military officials over the use of banned chemical weapons against the civilians of Syria in the 2013 attacks, in the Syrian town of Douma.

Syria has been involved in a civil war against the rule of Bashar al Assad since 2011, and the President is accused of using a banned chemical nerve agent sarin gas and chlorine against the civilians since 2013.

Why has the arrest warrant been issued

• The arrest warrant has been issued for alleged war crimes and genocide of the Syrian population by using banned chemical weapons in the civil war in 2013.
• The warrants specifically mentions the complicity of the Syrian President and other officials of using chemical weapons on August 21, 2013, in the town of Douma and the district of eastern Ghouta, which killed more than 1,000 people, news agency Reuters reported.

This is also the first arrest warrant issued for a Syrian head of state over the use of chemical weapons, according to Mazen Darwish, lawyer and founder of Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), which had filed the case in France.

According to the United Nations Mission organisation, the Assad regime had allegedly used the sarin gas nerve agent, which led to the killing of more than 1,000 people instantly.

• In the earlier bomb attacks, people would hide in the basements to avoid the damage, but this time, people didn’t even know what element had attacked them, and many children died in their sleep.
• Though the Syrian government has denied the use of chemical weapons in the attack, a previous joint inquiry of the United Nations and Organizations for the prohibition of Chemical Weapons found that the Syrian government did use the nerve agent sarin and has been using chlorine as a chemical weapon in the attacks against the civilians.

Why did France issue warrant against the Syrian President?

• The warrant issued by France against the Syrian President stemmed from the filing of a case accusing the President of using chemical weapons against the Syrian people.
• Mazen Darwish, the lawyer and founder of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), initiated this case in 2021.
• Following criminal complaints and testimonies from survivors of the 2013 attacks, an investigation was launched into these allegations.
• Mazen Darwish told CNN that this warrant signifies a new victory for the victims, their families, and the survivors, marking a significant step toward achieving justice and sustainable peace in Syria. .

Will Assad be arrested?

• Arrest warrants against the head of the stars are rare because they enjoy immunity against prosecution.
• However, the international law has exceptions to that immunity when the head of a state is accused of war crimes.
• However, the arrest of Assad is unlikely as the Syrian President has backing of Russia and China.
• Assad has been shunned by the rest of the world in the last decade, because of the brutal crushing of the dissent of the Syrian people.
• He has often called the uprising against his government as a handiwork of foreign agents in Syria.

The Syrian war

• The Middle East country has been embroiled in a civilian war since 2011, as the people revolted against the government of Bashar al Assad.
• Even before the uprising started, many Syrian people had been complaining about rising unemployment and corruption under the Syrian regime.
• According to reports, more than 3,06,000 people have died in the Syrian war since 2011 and the number could be much higher.
• Before Bashar al Assad, the former President of Iraq was accused of using chemical weapons in Iran.