The French Public Prosecution for Combating Terrorism requested a location of about twenty “agents of the Syrian regime”, including former President Bashar al -Assad, in the context of investigations on charges of crimes against humanity related to the killing of journalists in western Syria in 2012, according to a judicial source told France Press on Tuesday.
The Public Prosecution for Combating Terrorism is suspected of “having a joint plan” to bomb the Press Center in the Baba Amr neighborhood in the city of Homs (west), an attack that had previously met with “all leaders of the military and security forces” in the city.
In a supplementary indictment dated July 7, seen by AFP on Tuesday, the investigative judges assigned to the file were asked to determine the location of about twenty people, including those close to Bashar al -Assad.
Among the defendants: Maher Al -Assad, the brother of the ousted president and the leader of the Syrian Fourth Armored Division at the time, Ali Mamlouk, the director of the Syrian General Intelligence, and Ali Ayoub, head of the security and military committee in Homs in February 2012, and Rafeeq Shehadeh, head of the security and military committee in Homs when the mentioned facts occurred.
“The initiative of the Public Prosecution to combat terrorism represents” an important step to address impunity. “It is time to issue arrest warrants,” Mary Dosee added.
“In March, we asked for the issuance of arrest warrants.
On February 21, 2012 Western journalists entered the besieged city of Homs by Assad’s forces, themselves in a house that turned into a press center in the Baba Amr neighborhood, the stronghold of the Free Syrian Army.
They woke up at dawn to the sound of explosions and realized that the neighborhood was targeted by the regime forces. Journalists Mary Colvan, 56, and Dime Oshlik, 28, were killed with a mortar shell.
In Paris, the judiciary opened an investigation into murder and an attempt to kill French nationals in March 2012. In October 2014 the investigation was expanded to include war crimes, and in December 2024 crimes against humanity, in an unprecedented development for journalists killed.
