France will begin in May 2024 the trial of three Syrian officials for killing two Syrians-French nationals, revealed a judicial source on Monday.
The suspects in the murder of Mazen Dabbagh and his son Patrick, who were arrested in 2013, will be tried before the Criminal Court in Paris. The charges include involvement in crimes against humanity and war crimes.
It will be the first trial in France for crimes against humanity committed in Syria.
The former head of the General Intelligence Service, Ali Mamlouk, who later became head of the National Security Bureau, the former head of the Air Force Intelligence Service, Jamil Hassan, and the director of the Bab Touma Air Force Intelligence, Abdul Salam Mahmoud, will be tried in absentia.
According to Agence France-Presse, the three Syrian officials are wanted under international arrest warrants.
Patrick Dabbagh was born in 1993 and was a student at the College of Arts and Humanities in Damascus, while his father, Mazen, was a principal educational advisor at the French School in Damascus and was born in 1956.
They were detained in November 2013 by officers who claimed to belong to the Air Force Intelligence.
According to Mazen Dabbagh's brother-in-law, who was also arrested but released two days later, the two were taken to Mezzeh prison, where reports of torture have been made.
They were not heard from again, and in 2018, the government declared them dead, dating Patrick's death to 2014 and Mazen to 2017.
The indictment order issued by two investigating judges at the end of March stated that it "seems sufficiently established" that Patrick and Mazen Dabbagh were subjected to torture "so intense that it killed them."
The Syrian regime is targeted by several judicial prosecutions in Europe, especially in Germany.
