A former Syrian Salafist, who will appear in France for complicity in war crimes, will not be tried for the forced disappearances of four human rights activists in 2013, according to a ruling rendered Wednesday by the Court of Cassation which rejects the parties' appeal civil.
Majdi Nema, a 35-year-old Syrian, former spokesperson for the armed group Jaysh al-Islam (JAI), will be tried at the Paris Assizes for complicity in war crimes, suspected of having helped enlist children or adolescents between 2013 and 2016, and for participation in a criminal conspiracy with a view to preparing war crimes.
Majdi Nema, by his nom de guerre Islam Alloush, has always claimed to have been only an “uninfluenced”
spokesperson
for this armed group of the Salafist movement, opposed to the regime of Bashar Al-Assad and which had taken over. control in 2011 of Eastern Ghouta, an enclave located northeast of Damascus.
The group is suspected of the December 9, 2013 kidnapping of four human rights activists, including Syrian lawyer and journalist Razan Zeitouneh, who were never found.
An “extremely disappointing” decision
On November 20, 2023, the investigating chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal canceled the referral to the assizes of Majdi Nema for complicity in war crimes by launching deliberate attacks against the civilian population and for complicity in disappearances forced.
If it affirmed that
“Jaysh al-Islam must be considered responsible for the disappearance”
of the four activists, the investigating chamber nevertheless added that legally, the crime of forced disappearance was not constituted.
Civil parties had filed an appeal to contest this analysis but on Wednesday, the highest court of the French judiciary rejected their appeal and validated the conclusions of the investigating chamber, according to a decision consulted on Friday by AFP.
The Court of Cassation recalls that to uphold the crime of forced disappearance, “a positive act and direct participation of those in power”
would be required
, which
“does not appear to have been demonstrated”
.
Maître Clémence Bectarte, lawyer for FIDH, the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression and Syrian victims, deplored
“an extremely disappointing decision”
.
“The innocence of Majdi Nema is now recognized for two thirds of the offenses with which he was accused
,” welcomed his lawyers Romain Ruiz and Raphaël Kempf, and he
“contests the excess of facts that the civil parties are still trying to attribute to him in defiance of the law
.
Arrested in France where he had moved to study, their client has been in pre-trial detention since 2020. According to a source close to the case, his trial should take place in spring 2025.