Ex-Syrian vice-president Rifaat al-Assad could avoid trial in Switzerland

Rifaat al-Assad pictured in Spain in 2005. AP

The case against Rifaat al-Assad, the uncle of ousted President Bashar al-Assad who is due to be tried by the Swiss Federal Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity, could be dropped, according to media reports.

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The former Syrian vice-president and former Syrian army officer is being prosecuted in Switzerland for “war crimes and crimes against humanity”.

The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland has accused him of having “in his capacity as commander of the Defence Brigades (“Saraya al Difaa”, in Arabic) and commander of operations in Hama, ordered murders, acts of torture, cruel treatment and illegal detentions” in the context of the armed conflict and the widespread attack launched in February 1982 against the population of this Syrian city.

+ Rifaat al-Assad to face trial in Switzerland

The massacre, which left between 10,000 and 40,000 dead, earned him the nickname “the Butcher of Hama”.

Under the former Military Penal Code (MPC), war crimes have been punishable in Switzerland since 1968, regardless of the location or citizenship of the perpetrator or victim. Swiss prosecutors first opened criminal proceedings for war crimes involving al-Assad in December 2013, following a report by the Swiss NGO TRIAL International. Alerted by Syrians living in Geneva, the NGO had found him staying in a Geneva hotel.

+ From August 2023: Swiss issue arrest warrant for Rifaat al-Assad

The date of a trial has not been announced.

But on November 29, a few days before the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, recently driven from power by a coalition of rebel factions, the Federal Criminal Court informed the civil parties, the victims, “that it wishes to close the procedure”, the Le Matin Dimanche and the SonntagsZeitung reported on Sunday.

According to the newspapers, the court informed the parties that the defendant suffers from illnesses that prevent him from travelling and participating in his trial.

The Federal Criminal Court had opened the proceedings on the basis of universal jurisdiction and the non-applicability of statutes of limitations for war crimes.

+ Read more: universal jurisdiction gains ground in Switzerland

Presenting himself as an opponent of Bashar al-Assad, Rifaat al-Assad returned to Syria in 2021 after 37 years of exile in France, to escape a four-year prison sentence imposed on him in France for money laundering in an organised gang and embezzlement of Syrian public funds.

He left his country in 1984 after a failed coup attempt against his brother Hafez.

Translated from French by DeepL/sb

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