by Syrian lawyer Anwar al Bunni Director of Syrian Center for Legal Studies and Research
Al-Quds Al-Arabi: Today 21 May, 2024, the French capital, Paris, is hosting a trial in absentia before the French Criminal Court of three high-ranking security officials in the Syrian regime on charges of complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes concerning the killing of two French-Syrians who were arrested in Syria in 2013.
In 2018, the investigative judge issued an arrest warrant against three accused Syrian regime officials: Ali Mamlouk, former director of the National Security Office, Jamil Hassan, former director of Air Force Intelligence, and Abdul Salam Mahmoud, former director of the Air Force Intelligence Investigation Branch. He then issued an indictment against them and referred them to the Criminal Court in the case of the two victims, Patrick Al-Dabbagh and his father Mazen.
Patrick, born in 1993, was a student at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities in Damascus, while his father, born in 1956, was a senior educational consultant at the French school in the Syrian capital. They were arrested in November 2013 by members who said they were from the Syrian Air Force Intelligence Service.
The director of the Syrian Center for Legal Studies and Research, lawyer Anwar al-Bunni, is contributing to this trial, as he confirmed to « Al-Quds Al-Arabi » that he testified before the public prosecutor for this trial with the participation of witnesses and evidence. Al-Bunni declared the French court would be a closed trial, given that French law allows trial in absentia after the investigating judge issued an indictment against Ali Mamlouk, Jamil Hassan and Abdel Salam Mahmoud.
He explained that the Syrian Center for Legal Studies participated in this trial with evidence and witnesses. He was personally one of the witnesses heard by the prosecutor in 2018. Files were submitted in partnership between the Syrian Center for Legal Studies and Research, the International Federation for Human Rights, the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression and the Caesar Files Group, and these cases were supported by many testimonies and documents collected by the International Center for Justice and Accountability; the International Mechanism for Collecting Evidence about Crimes committed in Syria, and reports from international organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
The trial will continue for 4 days, starting from Tuesday until Friday, when the verdict will be issued, according to the source, who confirmed that « it will be for life as the court will hear many witnesses during these days to come. Such a verdict and some arrest warrants issued by the German judiciary and others, including attempts to condemn the regime, including Anwar Raslan’s ruling, who was the first to be convicted of crimes against humanity, will be a solid legal obstacle to any attempt at normalization, » he said.
Regarding the importance of this step, Al-Bunni noted its very great importance as the court would issue an arrest warrant issued by a court and not an accusation. He emphasized that what was important in this matter was that those who committed this type of crime were not ordinary people, but an entire regime, including Bashar al-Assad, who was responsible for these crimes.
He added that this matter « is clear in the indictment, as orders to commit crimes against humanity are issued from the highest level of the state, and this means that Bashar al-Assad is a participant in the crimes. He is the one who issues the order therein. » According to the director of the Syrian Center for Legal Studies and Research, the decision, which will be issued on the 24th of this month, will block any attempt to rehabilitate the Syrian regime or normalize relations with it and become a permanent barrier to the path of normalization.
Al-Bunni said that « the impossibility of applying the usual ways of justice in the Syrian situation, such as the International Criminal Court or the establishment of a special court for the Syrian situation, due to Syria’s not joining the agreement to establish the ICC and Russia and China’s use of the veto four times to prevent this path. He also mentioned the difficulties of finding political solutions to end the Syrian people’s tragedy and the lack of any opportunity for a political solution that might achieve a minimum level of justice for the victims which inspired the victims and their representatives to use global authority available in a number of European countries, the oldest of which was Germany, who started the justice procedures, a path that had only been followed in a simple way before, and where there had been few results in this regard.
Hence, the focus was concentrated specifically on the issue of prosecuting criminals in this crime: firstly: because it is the largest in scope with the most victims, and secondly: because of the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Syrians to Europe who were themselves victims of these crimes which meant the availability of victims, witnesses and plaintiffs to its commission and access to documents that confirmed the chain of command and the responsibility of the most senior figures in the Syrian regime for this crime against humanity.
Europe also has an independent judiciary and its judiciary has universal authority that grants the judiciary the right to prosecute criminals who have committed crimes against humanity and war criminals if they are present on its territory in accordance with the four Geneva Conventions, the Conventions for the Prevention of Torture and the resolutions of the Council of Ministers. Some countries, namely Germany since 2002 and Sweden and Norway since 2014, have the authority to prosecute criminals against humanity even if they are outside their territories, because impunity will threaten world peace as a whole.
He pointed out that more than 60 senior Syrian security officials are still in Syria as suspects and the subject of an open official investigation for crimes against humanity. Based on investigative files, international arrest warrants were issued for a number of accused officials at the top of the hierarchy of power who are still in Syria so far, including arrest warrants against Ali Mamlouk, head of the National Security Bureau, Jamil al-Hassan, head of the Air Force Intelligence Directorate, and Abdul Salam Mahmoud, head of the investigation branch of Air Force Intelligence in Damascus.
According to FIDH, the International Federation for Human Rights, the measures aim to « prosecute the highest officials in the regime since the outbreak of the Syrian Revolution in March 2011 » including against the regime’s president, Bashar al-Assad.
The French criminal court panel will include three judges without juries, and the hearings scheduled over four days will be filmed for preservation in the judicial archives. For the first time in the Paris Criminal Court, Arabic translation will be available for the public.
Lawyer Bektart noted that people tended to forget that the regime’s crimes were still being committed today and this trial would serve as a reminder that we under no circumstances relations should be restored with the Bashar al Assad regime.”
According to Mazen’s brother-in-law, who was arrested at the same time and released two days later, the two men, who hold dual French and Syrian citizenship, were taken to Mezzeh Airport near Damascus, which is described as one of the regime’s worst torture centers. After that moment, there was no indication they were alive until their deaths were announced in August 2018. According to death certificates sent to the family, Patrick died on 21 January 2014 and Mazen on 25 November 2017.
In the indictment, the investigating judges considered it « sufficiently established » that the two men « suffered, like thousands of detainees held by Air Force Intelligence, from torture so cruel that they died because of it. »
In the same context, dozens of witnesses, including many Syrian regime army deserters and former detainees in Mezzeh provided details to French investigators and the International Commission for Justice and Accountability, a non-governmental organization, regarding torture in the prison describing beatings with iron rods on the soles of their feet, electric shocks and sexual violence.
On the other hand, Mazen al-Dabbagh’s wife and daughter were evicted from their home in Damascus, which was taken over by Abd al-Salam Mahmoud.
The indictment stated that these incidents « are likely to constitute war crimes, extortion and blackmail camouflage, » and that « the seizure of the property of Syrians who have disappeared, were placed in detention, forcibly displaced or refugees, was a widespread practice of the Syrian regime. »
The original article by the Syrian Center for Legal Studies and Research, lawyer Anwar al-Bunni, for « Al-Quds Al-Arabi » can be found here:
dlockyer 