A French court in Paris handed down life sentences in absentia to three senior Syrian officials on Friday, convicting them of involvement in war crimes.
According to the Associated Press, this landmark verdict is the first of its kind in Europe against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The trial centered on the role of the officials in the 2013 arrest, torture, and killing of French-Syrian citizen Mazen Dabbagh and his son Patrick in Damascus.
The four-day trial featured harrowing testimonies from survivors and heart-wrenching accounts from Mazen’s brother.
Since 2018, international arrest warrants have been issued for the convicted officials: Ali Mamlouk, the presidential adviser for national security affairs; Jamil Hassan, the former head of the Syrian Air Force Intelligence Directorate; and Abdul Salam Mahmoud.
