Wanted by Switzerland for two years, an uncle of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Rifaat al-Assad, nicknamed the
“butcher of Hama”
, is referred to Swiss justice for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The former Syrian vice-president and former Syrian army officer is being prosecuted in Switzerland for
"
war crimes and crimes against humanity
"
, the Federal Prosecutor's Office (MPC) announced in a press release on Tuesday. .
There was no immediate official confirmation from Syria or Rifaat al-Assad.
Former pillar of the Damascus regime, Rifaat al-Assad returned to Syria in 2021 after 37 years of exile.
He was the leader of the elite internal security forces, the Defense Brigades, which notably bloodily suppressed an Islamist insurrection in 1982 in Hama.
It was this massacre that earned him his nickname.
The indictment is based
“on facts which took place during the month of February 1982, in the town of Hama and within the framework of the armed conflict between the Syrian armed forces and the Islamist opposition”
.
The Swiss prosecution accuses Rifaat al-Assad
of “having, in his capacity as commander of the Defense Brigades (Saraya al Difaa) and commander of operations in Hama, ordered murders, acts of torture, cruel treatment and illegal detentions
.
According to the MPC, these Defense Brigades
“would have been the main forces in charge of repression”
.
“In this context, several thousand civilians would have been victims of various abuses, ranging from immediate execution to detention and torture in specially created centers, which several testimonies report
,” he continues.
The criminal proceedings were opened under universal jurisdiction and the imprescriptibility of war crimes.
Under the former Military Penal Code (aCPM), war crimes have been punishable in Switzerland since 1968, regardless of the location and citizenship of the perpetrator or victim.
“Crimes against humanity”
It was following a denunciation by the Swiss non-governmental organization TRIAL International, in December 2013, that the federal prosecutor's office opened criminal proceedings for war crimes.
Alerted by Syrians living in Geneva, the NGO found his trace in a large Geneva hotel.
The MPC subsequently considered that the murders of which the defendant was accused could
“additionally be qualified as crimes against humanity”
.
Several victims have become complainants in the criminal proceedings.
Two years ago, Swiss justice issued a wanted notice against him but kept it secret until 2023 so that he could not take steps to evade it.
However, his presence is not essential for his trial, the date of which has not yet been announced.
In Switzerland a person can be judged in their absence, under certain conditions.
37 years of exile
In 1984, Rifaat al-Assad left Syria after a failed coup d'état against his brother, Hafez al-Assad, joining Switzerland and then France, where he has since presented himself as an opponent of the regime.
In the fall of 2021, the octogenarian returned to Syria.
Since returning, he has not made any public appearances.
In April 2023, he nevertheless appeared in a family photo alongside the current Syrian leader, his wife, Asma, and other family members.
Tried in France in a case of
“ill-gotten gains”
, he was definitively sentenced in 2022 to four years in prison for fraudulently building assets valued at 90 million euros.
He did not attend his trials, his defense citing serious health problems.