Lebanon has handed over an Assad-era general to Syria to face charges including murder and torture. It is the first time Beirut has sent a top military official from the former regime to Damascus to face trial since the collapse of the Assad regime in December 2024.
Syria’s interior ministry said on Wednesday it had received Maj Gen Adel Issa from Lebanon after authorities in Beirut detained him earlier this month. He once commanded Syria’s 17th Division before being transferred in 2015 to lead ground forces in Deir Ezzor until he retired the following year.
Issa, 67, was detained in Beirut just under two weeks ago after he had entered the Syrian embassy in Lebanon to resolve paperwork issues. When his identity came to light, staff alerted Lebanese officials who arrested and questioned him.
On Tuesday, Lebanese prosecutor Ahmed Rami Al Hajj ordered that Issa be handed over to Syrian authorities at the border between the two countries.
The extradition decision was based on the Lebanese-Syrian judicial agreement signed in 1951.
The Syrian interior ministry said Issa was wanted on charges including intentional homicide, facilitating a felony, killing more than two people, torture leading to death, and crimes aimed at inciting civil war and sectarian strife.
His case is now in the hands of a Damascus judge before it can be sent to a criminal court for trial, the ministry added.
One security official said 100 to 200 senior Assad-era officers are estimated to have entered Lebanon since the fall of the regime.
"Lebanese authorities shouldn't arrest any officer without a formal Syrian request based on a clear list of charges. This officer was charged with murder, inciting sectarian violence, and other crimes and his case was conveyed to the Lebanese authorities based on a previous request to arrest him," they added, referring to Issa.
Former rebel commander-turned-president Ahmad Al Shara led insurgents in an 11-day offensive that ended five decades of Assad family rule in late 2024. The government had captured hundreds of former officials and security operatives, but not the top echelons of the former regime, most of whom are now in Russia – including Bashar Al Assad and his brother Maher.
Both men have been sentenced to death in absentia. Their cousins, Waseem Al Assad and Atif Najib, have been captured in Syria and sentenced to death by the country's new authorities.
Lebanon and Syria have sought to open a new page in relations following the collapse of the Assad regime, which for decades had a strong sway over Lebanese affairs, including occupying the country from 1976 to 2005.
Lebanese armed group and political party Hezbollah was once an important ally of the Assad regime, and played a key role in propping up the Syrian army during the 2011 to 2024 civil war.
Hezbollah fought two punishing all-out conflicts with Israel in 2024 and 2026 that massively depleted its weapons stockpiles and killed thousands of fighters.
