Lebanon to hand over Assad-era general to Syria after war crimes questioning

Lebanon’s judicial authorities have decided to hand over a former senior Syrian military officer under ousted president Bashar al-Assad to Damascus after questioning him over crimes he allegedly committed during the country’s conflict, officials say.

Maj. Gen. Adel Issa will be the first military officer to be handed over by Lebanon since Assad’s fall in late 2024. He is expected to stand trial in his home country. There are no immediate details on the alleged crimes.

The decision comes days after a vote in parliament that made Lebanon the first Arab country to abolish the death penalty, a step that will become formal once it is published in the Lebanese Official Gazette.

The judicial officials say Issa is being handed over to Syria in accordance with a 1951 agreement between the countries that calls for handing over suspected criminals.

Issa is taken by members of Lebanon’s General Security Directorate, who will drive him to a border crossing and hand him over to Syrian authorities, two judicial and two security officials say. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Issa was questioned last week by judge Ahmad Rami Hajj, Lebanon’s public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation, over alleged crimes he had committed in Syria’s eastern province of Deir Ezzor and the northern province of Raqqa during Syria’s civil war that broke out in 2011.

The judicial officials tell The Associated Press that Issa denied all the charges against him, saying he was a military officer carrying out orders.

The Syrian embassy in Beirut sent Issa’s charge sheet to Lebanese judicial authorities earlier this month, the officials say.