Syrian president’s uncle to face Swiss trial for war crimes

Geneva – Rifaat al-Assad, an uncle of the Syrian president, will stand trial in Switzerland for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity that decades ago earned him the nickname “The Butcher of Hama”.

The office of Switzerland’s Attorney General (OAG) said it was charging the former Syrian vice president and former Syrian army officer with a long list of crimes committed in February 1982, during a notorious clash between the Syrian military and Islamist opposition in the town of Hama in western Syria.

There was no immediate official reaction from Syria nor from Rifaat al-Assad, who is believed to be in Syria.

The uncle of Syria’s current president Bashar al-Assad was being “charged with ordering homicides, acts of torture, cruel treatments and illegal detentions”, the OAG said in a statement. 

His alleged “war crimes and crimes against humanity”, it said, were committed “in his capacity as commander of the defence brigades … and commander of operations in Hama”, in central Syria.

They took place “within the context of the armed conflict and the widespread and systematic attack launched against the population of the city of Hama”, it said.

– Executions, torture –

Syrian security forces deployed to Hama in early February 1982 to suppress an insurrection by the Islamist opposition, and the operation allegedly ended at the end of the same month.

The OAG highlighted that the defence brigades “were purportedly the main forces in charge of the suppression”.

“In this context, several thousands of civilians were allegedly victims of different abuses, ranging from immediate execution to detention and torture in specifically-created centres,” it said.

According to the indictment, the armed conflict in question is estimated to have caused between 3,000 and 60,000 deaths in Hama, most of them civilians.

The criminal proceedings in Switzerland were initiated under so-called international jurisdiction, which allows countries to prosecute alleged crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide regardless of where they were committed.

The initial Swiss complaint against Rifaat al-Assad was filed in 2013 by TRIAL International, a rights group that works with victims and pushes Switzerland to prosecute alleged international criminals.

“It’s another step for justice for the Syrian people!” TRIAL chief Philip Grant said in a statement celebrating the indictment.

Along with several other past and ongoing proceedings in France and Germany, the new trial, he said, would help examine “the responsibility of the highest Syrian officials” and shed “light on the crimes committed by the al-Assad’s clan against its own people during the past decades”.

The organisation also quoted one of three victims who will serve as civil plaintiffs in the case hailing the proof “that such powerful persons can be brought to justice”.

– Exile –

The attorney-general’s office had already in 2021 requested permission to issue an international arrest warrant for the now 86-year-old, but the justice ministry initially balked, arguing Switzerland did not have jurisdiction to pursue him.

But a year later, a Swiss court overruled the justice ministry position, highlighting that Rifaat al-Assad had been staying at a Geneva hotel when Swiss prosecutors first launched their investigation in 2013.

This provided a path to pursuing him over alleged war crimes, it said, allowing the OAG to issue an international arrest warrant in 2022.

It remains unlikely that the defendant, who recently returned to Syria after 37 years in exile, will show up in person for the trial, for which a date has yet to be set. 

But his presence may not be necessary: Swiss law allows for trials in absentia under certain conditions.

Rifaat al-Assad, long a pillar of the regime in Damascus, was forced into exile in 1984 after a failed attempt to overthrow his brother, late president Hafez al-Assad.

He travelled to Switzerland and later France, working in opposition to the Syrian regime, before finally returning home in 2021.

He has made no public appearance since then, but last April, he appeared in a picture alongside the current president and the first lady, along with other family members.