A couple mourn a victim of the Assad regime’s sarin attacks near Damascus, August 21, 2013
Survivors of a lethal nerve agent attack in 2013, near Syria’s capital Damascus, have filed a criminal case in France against the Assad regime.
The sarin assault by the regime’s military on August 20, 2013, struck at least seven sites in the areas of East Ghouta and West Ghouta. More than 1,400 civilians were killed.
See also Syria Analysis: 4 Points on UN Report That Sarin Used Near Damascus
Lawyers for about a dozen survivors have filed the complaint, which is similar to a case opened in Germany last year.
“This is important so that the victims have the possibility to see those responsible being brought to justice and held accountable,” said Mazen Darwish, head of the Paris-based Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression.
The SCM, the Open Society Foundation’s Justice Initiative, and Syrian Archive are parties in the complaint. Darwish said another case is expected in Sweden this year.
Maher Al-Assad and the Scientific Research Center are the main suspects
This lawsuit is the legacy of lawyer Razan Zaitouneh and her colleagues
It is our duty towards our people in Eastern Ghouta https://t.co/w5oZfL4peg— Mazen.Darwish -مازن درويش (@mazenadarwish3) March 2, 2021
Russia and China, using their Security Council positions, have blocked attempts to set up an international tribunal over the attacks.
French intelligence services concluded in 2013 that the Assad regime carried out the sarin attack. The UN did not have authority to attribute responsibility for chemical attacks until 2014; however, since then, the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons have found the Assad regime culpable for at least 33 sarin or chlorine assaults.
But Russia, the regime, and allied activists have always pursued a campaign of propaganda and disinformation to deny the attacks or claim that they are “false flags” carried out by anti-Assad forces.
Lawyers have built the French case on testimonies from survivors and defectors, an analysis of the Syrian military chain of command, and hundreds of items of documentary evidence, including photos and videos.
If you want to read the dissent within the OPCW about Douma and other incidents they were tasked with investigating, the leaked material is here: https://wikileaks.org/opcw-douma/
Scott Lucas is asking you all to completely trust the very intelligence services that cooked up a false claim to invade Iraq in 2003.
Rastgoo,
The “dissent” is only 1 OPCW staff member — Brendan Whelan — who was not part of the Fact Finding Mission inspectors in Douma, where the chlorine attack occurred. He left the OPCW in September 2018, six months before the investigation of the FFM concluded in the Final Report.
It is still unknown who connected Whelan with WikiLeaks to put out his singular — and unsupported — dissent from all other OPCW inspectors on the FFM.
S.
You forgot to mention Ian Henderson. Many others are not named because they are afraid of the damage to their careers.
I didn’t forget Henderson. 1) He was not part of the FFM inspectors — he was the liaison in Damascus with the Assad regime for arrangements. 2) He had nothing to do with the FFM over its finding of “reasonable grounds” of a chlorine. 3) He wrote a personal “engineering memorandum” that was not relevant to the FFM, and was not supported by any FFM member.
“Many others” is a myth in your mind (and in Russian disinformation). Only Whelan and Henderson dissented.
“French intelligence services concluded in 2013 that the Assad regime carried out the sarin attack”
These same intelligence services (French and Turkish) falsely claimed that the delivery mechanism for the sarin was the M-600 with a range of more than 70kms? https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkeys-state-agency-obtains-detailed-information-about-chemical-attacks-in-syria–53556
As it turned out the range of rockets used was 2kms and they used an improvised warhead.
Rastgoo,
Yes, not only Western and Turkish intelligence services but also the UN, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, and Human Rights Watch established that the munitions in the sarin attacks on East Ghouta and West Ghouta were by Volcano missiles and Soviet-made 140 mm surface-to-surface missiles.
These missiles were possessed only by the Assad regime’s military.
S.
These miss
You initially claimed that M-600 missiles were used which only the Syrian government possesses…or does it?
According to reports, even these advanced ballistic missiles fell into rebel hands: https://en.zamanalwsl.net/news/article/34545/
Volcano and Soviet-era rockets were also captured from military stocks or manufactured by the rebels (despite what Bellingcat claims).
Nope. Never claimed M-600s were used — reported the definitive findings of Volcanoes and Soviet-made 140 mm missiles.
Your link says nothing about Volcanoes and Soviet-made missiles, and there is no evidence of rebels “manufacturing” Soviet-made missiles.
Other than that, quality comment.