Particle.news
Download on the App Store
4 ARTICLES
·
7h ago

France Issues European Arrest Warrants for Assad and Six Ex-Officials Over 2012 Homs Press Attack

Assad’s removal from office enables charges long blocked by head-of-state immunity.

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad speaks as he meets with the Syrian cabinet in Damascus, Syria in this handout picture released by Sana on March 30, 2021. SANA/Handout via REUTERS/ File Photo
Image

Overview

  • French investigating judges issued seven European arrest warrants last month for former Syrian officials, according to a judicial source.
  • The case centers on a Feb. 22, 2012 rocket strike on an informal press center in Homs that killed Marie Colvin and Rémi Ochlik and injured two other journalists and an interpreter.
  • Rights groups say the judicial probe concluded the site was deliberately targeted to silence foreign reporting.
  • Those named include Maher al-Assad, former intelligence chief Ali Mamlouk, and then–army chief of staff Ali Ayoub, alongside the former president.
  • The suspects are accused of complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity under France’s universal-jurisdiction laws, and Assad has been in Russia since his ouster in December 2024.