He has been prosecuted for “war crimes” in Switzerland since 2013, and has been wanted by the country’s justice system for two years. Rifaat Al-Assad, uncle of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, is suspected of having ordered the assassination of several thousand civilians and political opponents in the city of Hama, Syria, when he led the Saraya Al-Difaa (“Defense Brigades”). Two years after the launch of a Swiss wanted notice against him, the former vice-president of Syria was referred to the Swiss Federal Criminal Court for “war crimes and crimes against humanity”, announced the floor Tuesday March 12.
The indictment “is based on facts which took place during the month of February 1982, in the town of Hama and within the framework of the armed conflict between the Syrian armed forces and the Islamist opposition”, specifies the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Confederation (MPC, federal prosecutor’s office) in a press release. The Swiss prosecutor accuses him of having, “ in his capacity as commander of the Defense Brigades (Saraya Al-Difaa) and commander of operations in Hama, ordered killings, acts of torture, cruel treatment and illegal detentions”.
Wanted notice kept secret
According to the MPC, these Defense Brigades “would have been the main forces in charge of the repression”. “In this context, several thousand civilians would have been victims of various abuses, ranging from immediate execution to detention and torture in specially created centers, which several testimonies report”he continues.
Under the former Military Penal Code (aCPM), war crimes have been punishable in Switzerland since 1968, regardless of the location and citizenship of the perpetrator or victim. It was following a denunciation by the Swiss non-governmental organization Trial International in December 2013 that the federal prosecutor’s office opened criminal proceedings for war crimes.
The MPC subsequently considered that the “murders with which the accused is accused can also be qualified as crimes against humanity”, he said in his press release. The criminal procedure had been opened under universal jurisdiction and the imprescriptibility of war crimes, explains the OAG. In this context, a police check then made it possible to establish the presence of Bashar Al-Assad’s uncle on Swiss territory at the time of the opening of the investigation.
Several victims have become complainants in the OAG’s criminal proceedings. A trial date has not yet been set. Rifaat Al-Assad having returned to Syria in 2021 after several decades of exile, two years ago, Swiss justice had issued a wanted notice but had kept it secret until 2023 so that Rifaat Al-Assad could not take steps to avoid it.