Lawyers said on Tuesday that French authorities have issued arrest warrants for former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and six senior ex-officials in connection with a 2012 attack on a rebel-held city that killed two journalists.
Marie Colvin, 56, an American journalist for The Sunday Times, and 28-year-old French photographer Rémi Ochlik were killed on February 22nd, 2012, in an explosion in the eastern city of Homs—a blast now under investigation by French authorities as a potential war crime and crime against humanity.
British photographer Paul Conroy, French reporter Edith Bouvier, and Syrian translator Wael Omar were injured in the same attack at the informal press centre where they were working.
After being ousted by Islamist rebels at the end of 2024, Assad fled with his family to Russia, though his exact location remains unconfirmed.
Other than Assad, the warrants notably target his brother Maher al-Assad, who was the de facto head of the 4th Syrian armoured division at the time, intelligence chief Ali Mamlouk, and then-army chief of staff Ali Ayoub.
“The issuing of the seven arrest warrants is a decisive step that paves the way for a trial in France for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Bashar al-Assad’s regime,” said Clémence Bectarte, lawyer for the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and Ochlik’s parents.
