Top French court upholds universal jurisdiction principle for crimes committed in Syria

"The court recognises the principle of universal jurisdiction for the French judiciary in two cases concerning Syria," the Court of Cassation said in a statement.

The decision allows for investigations to continue in the cases against former Syrian soldier Abdulhamid Chaban, charged with complicity in crimes against humanity, and Majdi Nema, a former spokesman for the Islamist group Jaysh al-Islam accused of torture and war crimes.

Both Chaban, who was arrested in France in 2019, and Nema, who was detained while on a studying trip to the southern French city of Marseille the following year, deny any wrongdoing.

The suspects had tried to argue that they should not have been charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity relating to the Syrian civil war because these crimes do not exist on their country's statute books.

Syria never ratified the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court that defines both crimes.

Friday's ruling is significant for 160 cases that have been filed with a Paris court department handling crimes against humanity, covering 30 geographical areas also including Russia and Ukraine.

French magistrates in April ordered three senior Syrian regime officials to stand trial for complicity in crimes against humanity over the deaths of two French-Syrian nationals, but that relied on a separate law unrelated to universal jurisdiction.

Other European countries have, however, used the principle to try and convict alleged Syrian war criminals.

Germany last year convicted a former Syrian colonel of crimes against humanity and jailed him for life in the first global trial over state-sponsored torture in Syrian prisons.

Austria and Sweden have also sentenced Syrians for crimes during the civil war.

Syria's conflict has killed close to half a million people since it erupted in 2011 with a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests.

It has also forced around half of the nation's pre-war population from their homes, many of whom have sought asylum in Europe.

(AFP)