The court in Damascus, the capital of Syria, issued an official arrest warrant against the country's former president Bashar Assad in September of this year. This was reported by Zamin.uz.
Local and international media outlets reported on this. The charges are related to the bloody clashes that began in 2011 in Syria's Daraa province and later spread across the entire country.
As a result of the violent suppression of peaceful protests that emerged in the spring of that year, hundreds of civilians were killed, which led to a decade-long brutal war in Syria. According to the Syrian state news agency, the families and relatives of the victims filed an official claim with the court.
Bashar Assad is accused of intentional murder, torture of civilians, and unlawful deprivation of liberty. The Syrian Supreme Court announced that the arrest warrant also allows for his international search through Interpol.
This decision indicates that the legal proceedings against him have entered a new and serious phase. Although the protests in Daraa in 2011 initially involved peaceful demands, the army's violent intervention and opening fire resulted in many deaths.
These events later triggered a large-scale civil war in Syria. Bashar Assad ruled Syria from 2000 to 2024 but fled to Russia last December after rebels came to power.
He and his family received political asylum in Moscow. French courts have also issued several rulings against Bashar Assad.
In particular, in 2013, an arrest warrant was issued in connection with the use of chemical weapons, but the decision was annulled due to Assad's presidential immunity. Only in January 2025, after he was removed from power, was an arrest warrant issued in France for crimes against humanity.
Additionally, international human rights organizations have presented serious accusations against the Assad regime over the years. It has been documented that more than 30,000 prisoners died in the "Sednaya" prison between 2011 and 2018 due to torture, denial of medical care, and starvation.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also commented on this news, emphasizing that Assad is hiding in Moscow and is connected with various criminal organizations. Zelensky described the situation as "the world's biggest criminals finding refuge in the capital of impunity."
Thus, Bashar Assad, who ruled Syria for over a quarter of a century, is approaching a historic stage of accountability. The charges against him are expected to be a significant test for human rights and international justice.
