Switzerland issues arrest warrant for Syria’s Rifaat Al-Assad on ‘war crimes’

The Swiss Federal Criminal Court revealed yesterday that it had ordered the Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) to issue an international arrest warrant for Rifaat Al-Assad, the uncle of Syrian regime President Bashar Al-Assad for war crimes allegedly committed in the 1980s.

According to the court, in 2021, the Office of the Attorney General asked the FOJ to issue the arrest warrant, but the office refused, explaining that Switzerland was not competent to do so since Al-Assad was neither a citizen nor a resident in Switzerland. The FOJ also said that no Swiss citizens were among the victims of a 1982 massacre in Hama in Syria, which provides the background to the case.

However, the Federal Criminal Court challenged the FOJ’s decision and said a Swiss warrant was legitimate on the grounds that prosecutors first opened an investigation in 2013 while Rifaat Al-Assad was staying in a Geneva hotel.  At the time, the court said this presence was sufficient to establish Swiss jurisdiction in the prosecution of war crimes, which also makes it possible to launch an international search warrant.

However, implementing the warrant is likely to be complicated since Rifaat returned to Syria in 2021 after 37 years in exile.

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