French judicial authorities have issued arrest warrants for ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and six senior former officials in connection with a 2012 bombardment of the rebel-held city of Homs that killed two journalists, lawyers said Tuesday.
The victims were Marie Colvin, 56, an American correspondent for Britain’s Sunday Times, and 28-year-old French photographer Remi Ochlik. They were killed on February 22, 2012, when an explosion struck the informal press center where they were reporting. British photographer Paul Conroy, French reporter Edith Bouvier, and Syrian translator Wael Omar were wounded in the attack. The French judiciary is investigating the incident as a potential war crime and crime against humanity.
Other warrants target Assad’s brother Maher, then de facto head of the 4th Syrian Armoured Division; intelligence chief Ali Mamlouk; and former army chief of staff Ali Ayoub.
“The issuing of the seven arrest warrants is a decisive step that paves the way for a trial in France for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Bashar al-Assad’s regime,” said Clémence Bectarte, lawyer for the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and Ochlik’s parents.
The FIDH said the journalists had secretly entered the besieged city to document the regime’s crimes and were victims of a “targeted bombing.”
Assad fled to Russia with his family after being ousted by Islamist rebels at the end of 2024, though his exact whereabouts remain unconfirmed.
