PARIS: French judges have ordered senior officials of the Bashar Assad regime in Syria to stand trial for collusion in crimes against humanity, a first in France, according to court documents seen by AFP Tuesday.
The order, signed last Wednesday, says the officials, all senior advisers to Assad, are charged with complicity in crimes against humanity, and war crimes.
They are Ali Mamlouk, head of the National Security Bureau of the Ba’ath party, Jamil Hassan, former head of the Syrian Air Force Intelligence Directorate and Abdel Salam Mahmoud, another Air Force intelligence officer.
French prosecutors believe the trio, who are not expected to show up for the trial or have lawyers represent them, are responsible for the deaths of two French-Syrian nationals, Mazzen Dabbagh and his son Patrick, who were arrested in 2013.
France has issued international arrest warrants for the three.
A preliminary investigation into possible forced disappearances and acts of torture constituting crimes against humanity was launched in 2015 after the family of the two filed a complaint, which widened into a full-blown probe in 2016 and led to international arrest warrants two years later.
Mazzen Dabbagh, pedagogical adviser at the French school in Damascus, and Patrick Dabbagh, who was studying in the literature and humanities faculty at Damascus university, were arrested in November 2013 by officers identifying themselves as members of the Air Force intelligence services.
According to Mazzen Dabbagh’s brother-in-law Obeida Dabbagh, who was also arrested but released two days later, the two were taken to Mezzeh prison, believed to be the government’s main torture center.
They were not heard from again, and 2018 the government declared them dead, dating Patrick’s death to 2014 and his father’s to 2017.
According to witness statements collected by French investigators and the Commission for International Justice and Accountability, an NGO, they were beaten with iron bars on the soles of their feet, subjected to electric shocks and had their fingernails torn out.
The French investigating judges said it “seems sufficiently established” that they were subjected to torture “so intense that it killed them.”
Their house was confiscated and later rented to Hassan for around 30 euros ($32) per year, a fact that makes him an accomplice to war crimes, according to the judges.
Obeida Dabbagh welcomed the trial order, telling AFP it signalled to the Syrian government that “one day the impunity will end.”
The International Federation for Human Rights, an NGO, called the indictment “a historic decision.”
While this is the first time the French judiciary prosecutes Syrian officials for serious crimes, neighboring Germany has already brought similar cases to court.
In January of last year a German court sentenced a former Syrian colonel to life in jail for crimes against humanity in the first global trial over state-sponsored torture in Syria.
Anwar Raslan, 58, was found guilty of overseeing the murder of 27 people and the torture of 4,000 others at the Al-Khatib detention center in Damascus in 2011 and 2012.
France to try Syria officials for crimes against humanity
https://arab.news/86ay9
France to try Syria officials for crimes against humanity
- The order, signed last Wednesday, says the officials, all senior advisors to Assad, are charged with complicity in crimes against humanity, and war crimes
- France has issued international arrest warrants for the three
US Supreme Court asked to strip protected status from Venezuelans
WASHINGTON: The Trump administration asked the US Supreme Court on Thursday to back its bid to end the temporary protected status (TPS) shielding more than 350,000 Venezuelans from deportation.
A federal judge in California put a temporary stay in March on plans by Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem to end deportation protections for the Venezuelan nationals.
US District Judge Edward Chen said the plan to end TPS “smacks of racism” and mischaracterizes Venezuelans as criminals.
“Acting on the basis of a negative group stereotype and generalizing such stereotype to the entire group is the classic example of racism,” Chen wrote.
Solicitor General John Sauer filed an emergency application with the conservative-majority Supreme Court on Thursday asking it to stay the judge’s order.
“So long as the order is in effect, the secretary must permit hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan nationals to remain in the country, notwithstanding her reasoned determination that doing so is ‘contrary to the national interest,’” Sauer said.
In addition, “the district court’s decision undermines the executive branch’s inherent powers as to immigration and foreign affairs,” he added.
Former president Joe Biden extended TPS for another 18 months just days before Donald Trump returned to the White House in January.
The United States grants TPS to foreign citizens who cannot safely return home because of war, natural disasters or other “extraordinary” conditions.
Trump campaigned for the White House promising to deport millions of undocumented migrants.
A number of his executive orders around immigration have encountered pushback from judges across the country.
A federal judge in Texas ruled on Thursday that Trump’s use of an obscure wartime law to summarily deport alleged Venezuelan gang members was “unlawful.”
District Judge Fernando Rodriguez, a Trump appointee, blocked any deportations from his southern Texas district of alleged members of the Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang using the 1798 Alien Enemies Act (AEA).
Trump invoked the little-known AEA, which was last used to round up Japanese-American citizens during World War II, on March 15 and flew two planeloads of alleged TdA members to El Salvador’s notorious maximum security CECOT prison.
The Supreme Court and several district courts have temporarily halted removals under the AEA citing a lack of due process, but Rodriguez was the first federal judge to find that its use is unlawful.
US names new top diplomat in Ukraine
- Julie Davis, a Russian speaker who has spent much of her career in the former Soviet Union, will be charge d’affaires in Kyiv
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday named a career diplomat as its top envoy in Ukraine, putting another seasoned hand in charge after turbulence in the wartime relationship.
The State Department said that Julie Davis, a Russian speaker who has spent much of her career in the former Soviet Union, will be charge d’affaires in Kyiv, the top embassy position pending the nomination and Senate confirmation of an ambassador.
Ambassador Bridget Brink, also a career diplomat, stepped down last month. She had spent been stationed in Kyiv for three years, a grueling posting during Russia’s invasion.
She was also caught in an increasingly awkward situation after robustly supporting Ukraine under former president Joe Biden and then representing Trump as he dressed down Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in an Oval Office meeting.
The appointment of Davis was announced a day after Ukraine and the United States signed a minerals deal, seen by Kyiv as a new way to ensure a US commitment even after Trump opposes military assistance and presses a war settlement that many Ukrainians see as favorable to Russia.
“Ambassador Davis is the president and secretary’s choice,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters, after calling the minerals deal a “significant milestone.”
“President Trump envisioned this partnership between the American people and the Ukrainian people to show both sides’ commitment to lasting peace and prosperity in Ukraine,” Bruce said.
Davis serves as the US ambassador to Cyprus, a position she will continue concurrently with her new role in Kyiv.
Ex-FBI informant who made up bribery story about the Bidens will stay in prison, judge rules
- Alexander Smirnov's phony story was used by Republican lawmakers in a move to impeach Democratic president Joe Biden
- Smirnov later pleaded pleaded guilty in court to tax evasion and lying to the FBI about the phony bribery scheme
LAS VEGAS: A federal judge has denied the US government’s request to release from prison a former FBI informant who made up a story about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter accepting bribes that later became central to Republicans’ impeachment effort.
The decision, issued Wednesday by US District Judge Otis Wright in Los Angeles, comes weeks after a new prosecutor reassigned to Alexander Smirnov’s case jointly filed a motion with his attorneys asking for his release while he appeals his conviction. In the motion, the US government had said it would review its “theory of the case.”
Wright said in his written order that Smirnov is still flight risk, even if prosecutors say they will review his case.
“The fact remains that Smirnov has been convicted and sentenced to seventy-two months in prison, providing ample incentive to flee,” he said.
Smirnov, 44, was sentenced in January after pleading guilty to tax evasion and lying to the FBI about the phony bribery scheme, which was described by the previous prosecutors assigned to the case as an effort to influence the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
His attorneys, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, told The Associated Press in a text that they will appeal the judge’s decision and “continue to advocate for Mr. Smirnov’s release.” The US Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles declined to comment.
Smirnov had been originally prosecuted by former Justice Department special counsel David Weiss, who resigned in January days before President Donald Trump returned to the White House for his second term.
Smirnov has been in custody since February 2024. He was arrested at the Las Vegas airport after returning to the US from overseas.
Smirnov, a dual US and Israeli citizen, falsely claimed to his FBI handler that around 2015, executives from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma had paid then-Vice President Biden and his son $5 million each.
The explosive claim in 2020 came after Smirnov expressed “bias” about Biden as a presidential candidate, according to prosecutors at the time. In reality, investigators found Smirnov had only routine business dealings with Burisma starting in 2017 — after Biden’s term as vice president.
Authorities said Smirnov’s false claim “set off a firestorm in Congress” when it resurfaced years later as part of the House impeachment inquiry into Biden, who won the presidency over Trump in 2020. The Biden administration dismissed the impeachment effort as a “stunt.”
Weiss also brought gun and tax charges against Hunter Biden, who was supposed to be sentenced in December after being convicted at a trial in the gun case and pleading guilty to tax charges. But he was pardoned by his father, who said he believed “raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice.”
Jordanian who attacked US businesses over Israel support sentenced
- Hashem Hnaihen, 44, targeted businesses in the Orlando area beginning in June of last year
WASHINGTON: A Jordanian man who vandalized businesses in Florida for their perceived support of Israel was sentenced to six years in prison on Thursday for threatening to blow up an energy facility, the US Justice Department said.
Hashem Younis Hashem Hnaihen, 44, targeted businesses in the Orlando area beginning in June of last year, causing more than $450,000 in damages, according to court documents.
“Wearing a mask, under the cover of night, Hnaihen smashed the glass front doors of businesses and left behind ‘Warning Letters,’” the Justice Department said in a statement.
The letters were addressed to the president of the United States and laid out a series of political demands, it said.
They culminated in a threat to “destroy or explode everything here in whole America. Especially the companies and factories that support the racist state of Israel.”
In one of his attacks, Hnaihen broke into a solar power generation facility in Wedgefield, Florida, and spent hours destroying solar panel arrays, the Justice Department said.
He was arrested on July 11 after another “warning letter” threatening to “destroy or explode everything” was discovered at an industrial propane gas distribution depot in Orlando, it said.
Global health funding ‘faces historic challenges’
- WHO director warns budget cuts will significantly impact the health of people around the world
GENEVA: Global health funding faces historic challenges as donor countries reduce their contributions, the director of the World Health Organization said on Thursday.
The US withdrew from the WHO in January, saying the health agency had mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic and other international health crises.
The US is the UN health agency’s most prominent financial backer, contributing around 18 percent of its overall funding.
“We are living through the greatest disruption to global health financing in memory,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at WHO headquarters in Geneva.
The WHO revised its budget after the American withdrawal exacerbated a funding crisis due to member states reducing their development spending.
Faced with an income gap of nearly $600 million this year, the WHO has proposed slashing its budget for 2026-27 by 21 percent from $5.3 billion to $4.2 billion, and reducing staff numbers, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.
“It is of course, very painful,” the director added, warning that the cuts would significantly impact the health of people around the world.
Separately, the executive director of the WHO’s emergencies programs said the minds and bodies of children in Gaza were being broken following two months of aid blockade and renewed strikes.
“We are breaking the bodies and minds of the children of Gaza. We are starving the children of Gaza. We are complicit,” Deputy Director General Michael Ryan said at the WHO’s headquarters.
“As a physician, I am angry. It is an abomination,” he said.
“The current level of malnutrition is causing a collapse in immunity,” Ryan said, warning that cases of pneumonia and meningitis in women and children could increase.
The UN warned this week that acute malnutrition among Gaza’s children was worsening.
