France Begins Trial of Three Senior Officials of Bashar al-Assad's Government for Torture and Murder of a Father and Son

The trial of three former Syrian intelligence officials accused of torturing and murdering a Syrian-French father and son, who were arrested over a decade ago during the peak of anti-government protests, began on Tuesday, May 22, in Paris. According to the Associated Press, the three senior officials of Bashar al-Assad's government are Ali Mamlouk, former head of the National Security Bureau, Jamil Hassan, former head of the Air Force Intelligence, and Abdul Salam Mahmoud, former head of the Investigations Department. Mazen Dabbagh and his son Patrick were arrested in 2012 by government agents in Damascus following the crackdown on protests that later led to the ongoing civil war in Syria. Investigations into their disappearance began two years later when Obaida Dabbagh, Mazen's brother, testified before investigators looking into war crimes in Syria. The three defendants are the highest-ranking Syrian government officials to be tried in a European court, and if found guilty, they could face life imprisonment in France. Their four-day trial comes as Bashar al-Assad attempts to improve his image. International arrest warrants have been issued for these defendants, who are being tried in absentia. Human rights groups involved in the case hope to draw attention once again to the alleged crimes of the Assad regime. Meanwhile, about 50 activists gathered near the court to chant in support of the disappeared and the deceased. The first session of the trial called several witnesses, including Ziad Majed, a French-Lebanese academic specializing in Syrian affairs, to testify before the three judges. Majed described the history of the Assad family's rule since the early 1970s. One witness stated, 'Torture is not meant to make people talk, but to silence them.' Grans Lokein, a writer and Islamic scholar, added that the arrests by Bashar al-Assad's regime are 'arbitrary' and explained that Assad believed he was losing power after the onset of anti-government protests across the country and brutally suppressed the demonstrators, and now his government has 'complete control' over the people. The lawyer for the Dabbagh family, a member of the International Federation for Human Rights, told the Associated Press that there is great hope for the outcome of the trial, calling it 'a great hope' for all Syrian victims who cannot achieve justice. Brigitte Hermans, a senior researcher at the Human Rights Center at Ghent University in Belgium, also told the Associated Press that it is very important for the perpetrators of the [Syrian] regime to be held accountable, even if symbolically. The court's ruling is expected to be issued on Friday, May 26.