A Franco-Syrian jailed in France for equipment supplied to the Syrian army


The man was indicted on Saturday in Paris, in particular for “conspiracy to commit crimes against humanity, complicity in crimes against humanity and complicity in war crimes”.

A Franco-Syrian was indicted on Saturday in Paris and imprisoned, suspected of having supplied, via his shipping company, equipment to the Syrian army including components that could be used in the manufacture of chemical weapons, has t – we learned on Sunday from sources close to the case and the judiciary. The man, born in 1962 and living abroad, was arrested in the south of France, according to a source familiar with the matter to AFP. “He had returned to France with his family for the holidays», She added.

At the end of his police custody, he was indicted for “conspiracy to commit crimes against humanity, complicity in crimes against humanity and complicity in war crimes” also for “laundering of war crimes and crimes against humanity“A judicial source told AFP. He was remanded in custody, added this source.

Elements that may have been used in the production of chemical weapons

This is the first time that an indictment has intervened in an investigation in France on suspicion of support for the Syrian army, according to the close source. The allegations began in March 2011, the start of the civil war in Syria, and would have continued until January 2018 or June 2019 depending on the crimes concerned, said this source. The man is suspected of having provided support to the Syrian army through the acquisition of materials and components used directly for the surveillance and repression of the population, despite the international embargo.

This man is accused of having, through a company based in different places, in France and in the United Arab Emirates, participated in the supply of means to various state structures of the Syrian regime in charge of the production of non-military weapons. conventional», Developed the judicial source. Among the materials provided are elements that may have been used in the manufacture of chemical weapons, said the source close to the file.

US Treasury blacklist

Investigations in France on this Franco-Syrian, whose identity has not been specified, began when he was placed in 2016 with his shipping company on the blacklist of the US Treasury in charge of financial sanctions (Ofac) . The company was suspected of having shipped goods to Damascus, in violation of the international embargo. On the basis of information collected by the Central Office for the Fight against Crimes Against Humanity (OCLCH), a preliminary investigation was opened in June 2017. The investigations were then entrusted to investigating judges from the judicial court of Paris in January 2018.

In April 2021, three NGOs – the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) and Syrian Archive -, which had lodged a complaint with a civil party, obtained the opening a judicial investigation in Paris on chemical attacks perpetrated in 2013 in Syria and attributed to the regime of Bashar al-Assad. These are attacks in August in Adra and Douma (450 wounded) and in eastern Ghouta, where more than a thousand people, according to US intelligence, were killed by sarin gas.

These NGOs had already taken justice in Germany in October 2020 for the facts of 2013, but also for a sarin gas attack perpetrated in April 2017 in Khan Cheikhoun, between Damascus and Aleppo. In April, they also filed, along with a fourth NGO – Civil Rights Defenders – a complaint in Sweden for the attacks in 2013 and 2017.

Bashar al-Assad’s regime has always denied the use of chemical weapons and claimed to have put all its stocks under international supervision after an agreement reached in 2013 with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). But the OPCW urged Syria for more transparency at a meeting in November 2021, criticizing it for not declaring its stockpile of chemical weapons and for not welcoming investigators from the international organization on its soil.

SEE ALSO – “It’s no longer worth anything”: in northern Syria, the devaluation of the Turkish lira aggravates the misery



Source link -94