Bashar al-Assad, pursued by Interpol. Syria issued an arrest warrant on behalf of the former president, accused of crimes and torture
Bashar al-Assad's broken portrait. Photo: Ozan Kose / AFP / Profimedia
Syrian authorities issued an arrest warrant on behalf of former President Bashar al-Assad, who fled to Russia after being removed from power last December following a lightning offensive of Islamist rebels led by the current President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, a judge announced on Saturday that the former will be an international Interpol, according to the SANA Agency.
The arrest warrant was issued in shortage for a series of accusations, including crimes with premeditation and torture causing death, in relation to the 2011 repression in the city of Daraa, says the SANA agency, quoted by DPA and AGERPRES. At that time, in the context of the so-called “Arab Spring” movement, a series of successive folk riots took place in the countries of the Middle East against authoritarian regimes, some of them being replaced, without becoming democrats, and in other cases the riots led to long civil wars, as it was.
A pro-democracy movement was thus triggered in this country in 2011, but the president of Al-Assad responded with a violent repression. The situation rapidly evolved into an armed conflict soldier with hundreds of thousands of dead, millions of refugees and the devastation of Syria. Hundreds of thousands of people arrived in prisons, where they were tortured or killed without a trace, according to human rights lawyers.
After removing Al-Assad from power, the new Syrian leadership of the interim Islamist president Ahmed Al-Sharaa tried to design a moderate image and respect human rights, while seeking to obtain international support for the reconstruction of the country destroyed by war.
The new authorities in Damascus try to remedy relations with Russia, despite the direct military aid offered by it to Al-Assad during the war. The Syrian ministers of the external and defense have already visits to Moscow, and Ahmed Al-Sharaa had a telephone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and then they will continue to continue to develop a bilateral cooperation agenda, but did not reach any agreement on the future of the two Russian military bases. Syrian president received the invitation to participate in October in Moscow in the Russia – Arab League in October.
