France has issued an international arrest warrant for Syrian President, Bashar Al-Assad and his brother Mahel who is the de facto chief of a Syrian elite military unit; and two other Syrian officials over chemical attacks executed in 2013.
It is the first international arrest warrant issued for Syria’s president, whose forces have responded to protests that began in 2011 with a brutal clampdown that U.N experts say amounts to war crimes.
The warrants, which relate to charges of complicity in crimes against humanity and complicity in war crimes, follow a criminal investigation into chemical attacks in the town of Douma and the Eastern Ghouta area near Damascus in August 2013 that killed more than 1,000 people.
