A new international arrest warrant has been issued for Bashar al-Assad on charges of launching deadly chemical attacks in 2013. This is in addition to two previous warrants issued by French courts against the former Syrian regime leader.
According to Agence France-Presse on Thursday (November 23, 2025), judges in Paris signed this warrant for complicity in crimes against humanity and complicity in war crimes on July 29, a few days after French courts annulled the first warrant in this case.
On the same day, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office, which specializes in crimes against humanity, requested a new warrant.
The Court of Cassation had annulled the first warrant, issued in November 2023, on July 25, based on the absolute immunity enjoyed by a head of state while exercising their duties, since Assad was still in power at the time.
However, the French Supreme Court clarified that further arrest warrants could be issued, given that Assad was overthrown on December 8, 2024.
These chemical attacks, attributed to the Syrian regime, occurred on August 5, 2013, in Adra and Douma, wounding 450 people, and then on August 21 in Eastern Ghouta, killing more than 1,000 people with sarin gas, according to US intelligence.
French courts have issued two other arrest warrants targeting Assad, who now lives in exile in Russia.
One of them was issued on January 20, 2025, for complicity in a war crime, for the shelling of a civilian residential area in Daraa (southwestern Syria) in 2017.
Another arrest warrant was issued on August 19 for complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity, related to the 2012 bombing of a press center in Homs (central Syria), which resulted in the deaths of American reporter Marie Colvin and French freelance photographer Rémi Ochlik.
France issues third international arrest warrant for Bashar al-Assad
