France's top court says arrest warrant for Assad is invalid, new one can be issued

France’s Cour de Cassation, the country’s highest court, has ruled that an arrest warrant issued for former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad over the use of chemical weapons in Ghouta in 2013 and Duma in 2018.was invalid.

The ruling on Friday annulled the request to strip state immunity from al-Assad, which was under consideration for the sheer brutal scale of evidence in accusations documented against him by Syrian activists and European prosecutors over his chemical attacks.

The court decided that there were no exceptions to presidential immunity, even for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

But its presiding judge, Christophe Soulard, added that, as al-Assad was now no longer president after rebels in the country toppled him in December, “new arrest warrants can have been, or can be, issued against him” and as such the investigation into the case could continue.

A positive judgement could have paved the way for his trial in absentia over the chemical weapons attacks. Al-Assad now lives in exile in Russia, his chief backer during the civil war.

It could also set a precedent to allow the prosecution of other government leaders linked to atrocities, human rights activists and lawyers say.

Al-Assad has retained no lawyers for these charges and has denied that he was behind the chemical attacks.

The opposition has long rejected al-Assad’s denial, as his forces were the only side in the ruinous, nearly 14-year civil war to possess sarin.