Bashar al-Assad’s uncle could escape trial in Switzerland

Rifaat al-Assad, former commander of the Defense Brigades, is accused by the Swiss federal prosecutor of having, in the context of the armed conflict and the widespread attack launched in February 1982 against the population of the Syrian town of Hama, ” ordered murders, acts of torture, cruel treatment and illegal detentions. This massacre, which left between 10,000 and 40,000 dead, earned him the nickname “butcher of Hama”. His trial date has not been announced.

And on November 29, a few days before the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, driven from power by a coalition of rebel factions, the federal criminal court informed the civil parties, victims, “that it wishes to close the procedure.” the Swiss newspapers “Le Matin Dimanche” and “SonntagsZeitung” reported on Sunday. According to these newspapers, the Swiss court informed the parties that the octogenarian accused suffers from illnesses which prevent him from traveling and participating in his trial.

It was following a denunciation from the Swiss non-governmental organization Trial International, in December 2013, that the federal prosecutor’s office opened the criminal procedure. Alerted by Syrians living in Geneva, the NGO found his trace in a large Geneva hotel. “Trial confirms the intention expressed by the court to the parties to close. But the formal decision has not yet been taken,” Benoit Meystre, legal advisor to the NGO, confirmed to AFP on Sunday.

“In the event of closure, the opportunity for an appeal will be examined and it is very likely that this decision will be contested,” he indicated, specifying however that “Trial does not have the capacity to appeal, if there is recourse it will be due to the will of the complaining parties, victims. The Swiss federal prosecutor’s office opened the procedure under universal jurisdiction and the imprescriptibility of war crimes.

Presenting himself as an opponent of Bashar al-Assad, Rifaat al-Assad returned to Syria in 2021 after 37 years of exile in France, to escape a 4-year prison sentence which had been imposed on him in France for money laundering. organized gang and embezzlement of Syrian public funds. He left his country in 1984 after a failed coup attempt against his brother Hafez.