France issued, after 13 years, arrest warrants on behalf of Bashar al-Assad and other former Syrian officials for two journalists in the 2012 bombing
Bashar al-Assad's broken portrait: Ozan Kose / AFP / Profimedia
The French judicial authorities issued arrest warrants on behalf of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and six other high-ranking officials, in connection with the bombing, in 2012, a city controlled by rebels, an attack in which two journalists died, the victims' lawyers announced on Tuesday.
Marie Colvin, 56, an American journalist working for The Sunday Times in the UK, and French photographer Rémi Ochlik, were killed on February 22, 2012, in an explosion in the city of Homs. The case is investigated by French justice as a possible crime against humanity and war crime.
British photographer Paul Conroy, French journalist Edith Bouvier and Syrian translator Wael Omar were injured in the attack on the improvised press center.
Assad fled with his family to Russia after being removed from the Islamist rebels at the end of 2024, although the place where it was exactly was not confirmed.
In addition to Assad, the mandates also target his brother, Maher al-Assad, who at that time was the de facto chief of the Syrian army, the head of information services Ali Mamlouk and the former Chief of the General Staff, Ali Ayub.
“The issuing of the seven arrest warrants is a decisive step that opens the way for a trial in France on war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Bashar al-Assad's regime,” said Clémence Bectartte, a lawyer of the International Human Rights (FIDH), based in Paris, and Ochlik's parents.
Fidh said that the journalists entered the besieged city to “document the crimes committed by Bashar al-Assad's regime and were the victims of a” targeted bombing “.
“The investigation clearly established that the attack on the improvised press center was part of the explicit intention of the Syrian regime to target the foreign journalists, to limit the media coverage of its crimes and you have the strength to leave the city and the country,” said Mazen Darwish, lawyer and director of the Syrian center for the media (SC).
Colvin was recognized for his brave reports and for the black patch of the eyes, which he wore after losing his eyes on an explosion during the civil war in Sri Lanka. Her career was evoked in the movie “A Private War”, nominated for the Golden Globe.
