France issues arrest warrants for Assad regime over 2012 killing of journalists

Bashar Al Assad and top lieutenants sought for role in death of foreign correspondents

Civilians leave the besieged city of Homs before an evacuation by the UN to a safer location, in 2014. AFP

A French court on Tuesday issued an arrest warrant for former Syrian president Bashar Al Assad and six former senior officials over a 2012 bombing that caused the death of US journalist Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik in the besieged city of Homs.

They face charges of complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity, the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) said. "The issuance of these seven arrest warrants is a decisive step that paves the way for a trial in France for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Bashar Al Assad's regime against Remi Ochlik and his fellow journalists," said FIDH lawyer, Clemence Bectarte.

On February 22, 2012, Colvin, 56, and Ochlik, 28, were killed in what the FIDH described as a "targeted bombing" of an informal press centre. French journalists Edith Bouvier, British photographer Paul Conroy and their Syrian interpreter Wael Al Omar were wounded in the attack. They had been smuggled into the city by rebels.

The FIDH described the attack as a "turning point" in the documenting by foreign journalists of the crimes committed by the Assad regime during the 14-year civil that killed about half a million Syrians.

“The judicial investigation clearly established that the attack on the informal press centre in Bab Amr was part of the Syrian regime's explicit intention to target foreign journalists in order to limit media coverage of its crimes and force them to leave the city and the country,” said Syrian lawyer and activist, Mazen Darwish.

French journalist Edith Bouvier was evacuated from Homs after the bombing of the building in which colleagues were killed. AFP

Mr Darwish heads the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression, which contributed to the case as a civil party by submitting evidence and bringing witnesses, alongside the FIDH.

The arrest warrants target a brother of the former Syrian president, Maher Al Assad, formerly the de facto commander of the Syrian army's fourth division, as well as former head of security, Ghassan Bilal.

Judges also issued warrants for the arrest of the Syrian army's former chief of staff, Ali Ayoub; former head of Syrian general intelligence, Ali Mamlouk; former head of the general security directorate, Mohamed Dib Zaitoun; and former head of security for the military and security committee in Homs, Rafik Mahmoud Shahadah.

Marie Colvin was one of the most prominent war correspondents of her generation. Getty Images

While Mr Al Assad is known to be in Russia, the whereabouts of the six others are unknown. After more than five decades in power, the Assad regime fell in December after it was toppled by a coalition of rebel groups that have stayed in power.

To date, French authorities have issued 21 arrest warrants for senior Syrian officials, including three targeting Bashar Al Assad, the FIDH said. In July, France's highest court annulled an arrest warrant issued in November 2023 for complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity. The court's argument was that Mr Al Assad had benefited from immunity at the time as head of state.

A few days later, France's national anti-terrorism office filed for a new arrest warrant, arguing the deposed president was no longer protected by immunity because he was no longer president of Syria. In January, a separate arrest warrant was issued against Mr Al Assad over the death of a French-Syrian citizen in the city of Deraa in 2017.