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Victim and not executioner: a former Syrian officer who took refuge in France cleared by justice

2021-02-27T06:40:18.850Z


After fleeing the ranks of Bashar al-Assad's army, whose misdeeds he denounced, Sami Kurdi had nevertheless been questioned by the j


It is a non-place in the form of rehabilitation.

Suspected of having committed the worst crime, that against humanity, Sami Kurdi, a former officer of the Syrian army installed in France since his defection, has just seen his honor restored by justice.

In an order dated January 25, investigating judge Stéphanie Tacheau very clearly ranks the 43-year-old ex-soldier in the camp of heroes and not that of executioners.

"It's a satisfaction, but I remain deeply shocked by the opening of this investigation, reacts his lawyer Me Marie Dosé.

He should have met the judicial institution only in one frame, that of the victim of the crimes of the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

"

In February 2012, Sami Kurdi was one of the first officers to denounce the repression of the revolt by the Damascus regime and to join the Free Syrian Army (ASL), of which he became a spokesperson.

He even records a video in which he invites his brothers in arms to follow him.

His family pays the price: several of his relatives, including his brother, are executed.

Testimonies of a benevolent attitude

After fleeing Syria via Lebanon, Sami Kurdi arrived in France in October 2013 with his wife and their three children to apply for asylum.

His wife won her case, but her request was rejected by OFPRA (French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons) then by the National Court of Asylum Law (CNDA).

In its judgment, the authority accuses him of having defected too late ... He is even threatened with expulsion.

But that's not all.

In February 2017, OFPRA made a report to the prosecution, believing that the former officer was able to be an accomplice in the crimes of the bloodthirsty regime of Bashar al-Assad.

On April 24, 2017, the crimes against humanity unit of the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (PNAT) opened a judicial investigation for torture, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Stationed in 2011 at a military roadblock near Homs, a stronghold of the uprising, Sami Kurdi said he facilitated the passage of ambulances and was very flexible with civilians.

Illustration in Hula, near Homs, on November 4, 2011. / REUTERS  

Sami Kurdi has always denied having committed the slightest exaction.

Returned to the army in 1995, he was assigned at the beginning of 2011 to internal security in Homs, the bastion of the Syrian popular uprising.

Then, in June 2011, he was sent to a checkpoint at the entrance to the town of Rastan, north of Homs.

However, according to his explanations, no one was arrested or killed at his roadblock.

On the contrary, he claims to have facilitated the passage of ambulances and to have been very flexible with civilians.

Me Dosé provides several certificates from the inhabitants of Rastan confirming his benevolent attitude.

"Victim of the war which drove him into exile"

The investigation, entrusted to the Central Office for the Fight against Crimes Against Humanity, Genocides and War Crimes (OCLCH), draws on many other sources: a report by the NGO Human Rights Watch, reports of the independent commission of inquiry of the UN as well as those of a private organization, maps, books… Sami Kurdi is even placed under wiretapping for ten days.

The ex-officer is never questioned.

While he was summoned to be indicted in June 2018, he emerged from the judge's office under the status of assisted witness.

In the process, the journalist Edith Bouvier, injured in a bombing in Homs in 2012, attests to the honesty of Sami Kurdi, with whom she came into contact after her defection.

In its summary report of December 2018, the OCLCH absolves the former soldier and on the contrary underlines the heavy price he had to pay for his defection.

The investigation is closed and a dismissal looms.

However, it will take 18 months for the PNAT to issue a supplementary indictment in July 2020 in which he asks the judge to proceed to new hearings.

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Justice Tacheau decided to ignore it.

And let it be known very clearly.

"The judicial information opened against Sami Kurdi did not allow, despite research undertaken and interrogations, to determine that he is the author of crimes against humanity," she wrote in her dismissal order .

Rather, the judicial information received his story of a victim of the war which drove him and his family into exile.

"

"No evidence after months of investigation"

The magistrate considers that the new requests of the prosecution are not relevant and tackles the very long time taken to formulate them.

In conclusion, the judge recalls that the limited means of justice “must be mobilized for the investigations concerning persons against whom there are serious and consistent indications

[...]

and not those against whom there is no

evidence.

no conclusive evidence after months of investigation, investigation based initially only on a theoretical deduction and which is not corroborated by any element of the file, quite the contrary, since it is established that Sami Kurdi carried out strong acts demonstrating that 'he opposed the bloody repression of civilians when the Syrian army became its tool.

"

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During his interrogation, the ex-officer was moved by his fate: “I arrived in France having the image of the country of Human Rights and freedom […] I am extremely disappointed and shocked , because I came to be protected and I am today in the box of accusation… ”Since settling in Normandy, Sami Kurdi has had a fourth child.

Source: leparis

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