Rifaat al-Assad is referred to Swiss justice for war crimes and crimes against humanity. He was the leader of the elite internal security forces, the Defense Brigades.
He notably bloodily suppressed an Islamist insurrection in 1982 in Hama. The indictment is based “on facts which took place during the month of February 1982, in the town of Hama,” the Swiss Federal Prosecutor’s Office said in a press release on Tuesday. There was no immediate official confirmation from Syria or Rifaat Al-Assad.