At midnight on November 3, 2013, five Syrian officials dragged arts and humanities student Patrick Dabbar from his home in Damascus’ Mezeh district.
At the same time the next day, the same men, including representatives from the Syrian Air Force Intelligence Unit, returned with more than a dozen soldiers and arrested the 20-year-old father, Matzen.
They accused the 48-year-old educational counselor at Lycée University in France of failing to properly raise their son. He said, “I will educate you,” but the specific reason for his arrest was not disclosed.
It would be the last time anyone in the family would see them. Almost five years after their arrest, until July 2018, when authorities issued a certificate stating that Patrick Dabbar had died in January 2014 and Mazen Dabbar had died in November 2017, the French-Syrian man was arrested. I received no news of their whereabouts. The cause of death has not been disclosed. The body was not returned to the family.
on tuesday, Three Syrian officials to go on trial in Paris He was charged with crimes against humanity and involvement in war crimes in connection with their disappearances and deaths.
Ali Mamluk (78 years old), head of Syria’s secret services and security advisor to President Bashar al-Assad, and Jamil Hassan (72 years old), head of the Syrian Air Force intelligence unit and a member of President Assad’s inner circle until 2019. (years old) and Abdel Salam Mahmoud, head of intelligence at the notorious Mezze detention center where the father and son were allegedly held in the early 1960s, is accused of colluding with their arrest, torture and death. There is.
Syrian trials are being held around the world Netherlands, Germany and SwedenHowever, this is the first time such a high-ranking figure close to Assad has been held accountable.
Although the defendants will not appear in court, activists say the case strengthens demands for universal justice and offers hope to the families of more than 111,000 people who have gone missing in Syria since 2011. are doing.
“This is historic because they are the highest officials of the Syrian regime being put on trial,” said Clemence Bechtart, a French lawyer representing the Dabur family.
“This is an important issue not only for the Dabag family, but also for many other Syrians. Some families of the missing are still waiting for news of their loved ones or the bodies of those killed. This is still a very modern issue.”
The Syrian conflict began with protests and Arab Spring pro-democracy rallies in 2011 and escalated into a civil war with a large-scale uprising against Assad the following year.
More than 15,000 Syrians are believed to have been tortured to death by Syrian intelligence. More than 230,000 civilians have reportedly died in the conflict, including 30,000 children. Syria Human Rights Network.
Despite the war, President Assad has continued to rehabilitate himself in the Arab world over the past 12 months and has been invited to the Arab League summit and talks with other regional leaders.
The trial is a joint effort by European countries to prosecute crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide based on the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows countries to try perpetrators regardless of their nationality or where the crime was committed. It highlights a growing sense of determination.
Last November, France issued an international arrest warrant for President Assad on suspicion of using chemical weapons against civilians.
Three others, including Assad’s brother Maher, were also charged with using banned sarin gas in two attacks in August 2013 that killed more than 1,000 people, including hundreds of children. It was done.
It is believed to be the first time that a sitting head of state has been the subject of an arrest warrant in a third country for crimes against humanity. A French court is expected to decide later this month whether to proceed with an investigation into Assad.
France established a war crimes unit in 2012.Until now, however, the principle of universal justice has been constrained by the requirement that either the defendant or the victim have a concrete connection to France through nationality or residence.
More than 20 Syrians, most of them survivors of Mezze prison, have described prison conditions and detailed the chain of command of the prison’s intelligence services during the French investigation that led to the indictment of three police officers over the Dabur incident. explained. when his father and son were taken into custody.
Bekhtarte said the trial would not have been possible without their testimony about the “terrible reality of the crimes committed in Bashar al-Assad’s prisons.”
“At a time when the Syrian regime appears to be going unpunished for all the atrocities it commits, this trial, part of a long-running fight against impunity, will recognize the regime’s crimes and hold its top leaders accountable. That is extremely important,” she said. “The goal is that there is no escape from justice. This will not be the last trial.”
Mazen Darwish of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression added: “Besides Mr. Mazen and Patrick Dabur, there are hundreds of thousands of other Syrian men and women who have died during the Syrian conflict, especially at the hands of Bashar al-Assad.” The regime and their families are still waiting for justice. ing. ”
