According to a judicial source and a human rights organization, a French court has issued arrest warrants for seven former top Syrian officials, including former president Bashar al-Assad, related to the bombing of a press center in Homs.
On February 22, 2012, a rocket struck the “informal press center,” injuring two journalists and an interpreter, as well as renowned US journalist Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik.
In addition to al-Assad, who emigrated to Russia in December of that year when opposition fighters took control of Syria, warrants have also been issued against his brother Maher al-Assad, who at the time was de facto commander of the 4th Syrian armoured division, intelligence chief Ali Mamlouk, and then-army chief of staff Ali Ayoub, among others.
In its courts, France allows the filing of crimes against humanity.
According to the Syrian Center for Media and Free Expression, it was determined that the attack had purposefully targeted foreign journalists by the French judiciary.
According to Mazen Darwish, a lawyer and general director of the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression, “the judicial investigation clearly established that the attack on the informal press center in Bab Amr was part of the Syrian regime’s explicit intention to target foreign journalists in order to stifle media coverage of its crimes and force them to leave the city and the country.”
The journalists were the victims of a “targeted bombing,” according to the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) who also reported.
The warrants, which were issued on Tuesday, were welcomed by Clemence Bectarte, the family of Ochlik, and he called them “a decisive step that opens the door for a trial in France for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Bashar al-Assad’s regime.”
The attack on the informal press center where they were employed also injured British photographer Paul Conroy, French journalist Edith Bouvier, and Syrian translator Wael Omar.
Colvin, who had lost one eye to an explosion during Sri Lanka’s civil war, was renowned for her fearless reporting and signature black eye patch. A Private War, a Golden Globe-nominated movie, celebrated her career.
Source: Aljazeera
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