3 Syrian officials sentenced to life in prison in absentia for war crimes

PARIS (AP) — A Paris court on Friday sentenced three senior Syrian officials in absentia to life in prison for complicity in war crimes in a landmark case against the Syrian president's regime. Bashar al-Assad and the first case of its type in Europe.

The trial focused on officials' role in the 2013 alleged arrest in Damascus of Mazen Dabbagh, a French-Syrian father, and his son Patrick, as well as their subsequent torture and killing. The trial, which lasted four days, was marked by poignant testimony from survivors and harrowing accounts from Mazen's brother.

Although the verdict was cathartic for the plaintiffs, France and Syria do not have an extradition treaty, making the outcome largely symbolic. International arrest warrants for the three former Syrian intelligence officials – Ali Mamlouk, Jamil Hassan and Abdel Salam Mahmoud – have been issued since 2018, to no avail.

They are the highest-ranking Syrian officials to be tried in a European court for crimes allegedly committed during the country's civil war.

The legal proceedings took place while Assad began to shed its long-standing status as pariah born of violence unleashed on his adversaries. Human rights groups involved in the case hoped it would refocus attention on the alleged atrocities.

Clémence Bectarte, the Dabbagh family's lawyer with the International Federation for Human Rights, said the verdict was the “first recognition in France of the Syrian regime's crimes against humanity.”

“It is a message of hope for all Syrian victims who are waiting for justice. This is a message that must be sent to States so that they do not normalize their relations with the regime of Bashar al-Assad,” she declared.

The trial opened Tuesday over allegations of torture and murder of the French-Syrian father and son arrested at the height of anti-government protests inspired by the Arab Spring. Both men were arrested in Damascus following a crackdown on protests that later turned into a brutal civil war, now in its 14th year.

The investigation into their disappearance began in 2015 when Obeida Dabbagh, Mazen's brother, testified before investigators already looking into war crimes in Syria.

Obeida Dabbagh and his wife, Hanane, are parties to the lawsuit alongside non-governmental organizations. They testified in court Thursday, the third day of the trial.

Obeida Dabbagh said he hoped the trial would set a precedent for holding Assad to account. “Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have died. Even today, some live in fear and terror,” he said.

Despite the absence of the accused, the importance of the trial was underlined by Brigitte Herremans, senior researcher at the Center for Human Rights at Ghent University. “It is very important that those responsible for the regime are held accountable, even if it is mainly symbolic. This means a lot for the fight against impunity,” she said.

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Masha Macpherson and Oleg Cetinic contributed from Paris