Search Results for: President Bashar al-Assad

The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) indicted former Syrian Vice President Rifaat al-Assad on Tuesday, referring him to the Federal Criminal Court for trial. The OAG accused al-Assad of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity while serving as commander of the defense brigades and commander of operations in the Syrian city of [...]

READ MORE

Syria’s opposition government said Saturday that government forces shelled the northwestern village of Qaqfin, located in Idlib, Syria. The shelling resulted in the death of ten civilians, drawing further attention to allegations of human rights violations committed by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his government.  In a press release, the Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC) revealed [...]

READ MORE

Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad issued a decree on Thursday (Legislative Decree No 36 of 2023) granting amnesty for certain crimes committed before the decree was issued, subject to conditions. Judge Muhammad Eid Baloza announced that 350 prisoners in Damascus have been released under the decree as of Saturday. The decree stated that misdemeanors and violations [...]

READ MORE

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague issued an interim order on Thursday directing the Syrian government to “take all measures within its powers” to prevent torture. This development comes from a case brought by the Netherlands and Canada, accusing Syria of engaging in a prolonged campaign of torturing its own citizens. The [...]

READ MORE

Security forces in Syria fired at anti-government protestors Wednesday in Sweida, a Druze city in the southwest of the country, according to a correspondent from news outlet Suwayda 24. The protestors were fired upon near the entrance of a local Ba’ath party building after they attempted to shut it down. Suwayda 24’s correspondent said security [...]

READ MORE

Protests in southern Syria entered their fifth day on Thursday, in the Druze city of Sweida. The origin of these protests is attributed to the rise in fuel prices, which has subsequently worsened the already challenging economic conditions prevalent in the area. At the core of the demonstrators’ demands is the call for the removal [...]

READ MORE

Syria’s Foreign Ministry Saturday said that the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)’s report holding the Syrian government responsible for the 2018 Douma attacks was unfounded. The report, released Friday, investigated a chlorine gas attack on April 7, 2018, in Douma, Syria which killed 43 people. The OPCW’s report contends that its nearly [...]

READ MORE

The Russian-Ukrainian crisis started to deteriorate in early 2021 when Ukraine arrested pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk on allegations of conspiring a coup d’etat, and Russia initiated military exercises near the Ukrainian border. Russia is the second-largest oil producer, trailing only the United States, and the third-leading oil exporter, behind Saudi Arabia and the United Arab [...]

READ MORE

The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Wednesday expanded authorizations for nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to engage in certain transactions and activities in Syria. The department amended some of its sanctions against the country in an effort to allow continued humanitarian assistance to the Syrian people.  In July, OFAC imposed sanctions on [...]

READ MORE