France's Top Court Voids Assad Arrest Warrant for 2013 Chemical Attacks, Cites Presidential Immunity

France’s Court of Cassation has voided a 2023 French arrest warrant targeting former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for his alleged role in the 2013 chemical attacks that killed over 1,000 people in Adra and Douma near Damascus. 

The court ruled on Friday that Assad, as a sitting head of state when the warrant was issued, was protected by full presidential immunity under international law, even for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. However, presiding judge Christophe Soulard noted that Assad’s ouster in December 2024, when Islamist-led rebels seized control of Syria, ended his immunity, allowing for new arrest warrants to be issued.

The annulled warrant, based on universal jurisdiction, accused Assad, his brother Maher, and two Syrian generals of complicity in the 2013 sarin gas attacks, supported by survivor testimonies, defector accounts, and video evidence. French prosecutors had challenged the warrant citing Assad’s immunity, but the Paris Court of Appeal upheld it in June 2024, leading to the final appeal and annulment.

Despite this setback for human rights advocates, the case remains active. In January 2025, French magistrates issued a new warrant against Assad for alleged complicity in a 2017 Deraa bombing that killed a French-Syrian civilian. 

The court also distinguished between “personal immunity” for sitting heads of state and “functional immunity” for state officials, ruling that the latter can be lifted for severe crimes like war crimes. This upheld a separate indictment against Adib Mayaleh, Syria’s former central bank governor and now a French citizen, for allegedly funding Assad’s war efforts.

Assad and his family are believed to have fled to Russia after his regime’s collapse on December 8, 2024, ending nearly 50 years of Assad family rule. Syria’s civil war, ongoing since 2011, has killed over 500,000 and displaced millions.