French authorities have sent a judicial rogatory letter to the Lebanese judiciary requesting that former Syrian regime officials be tracked and arrested if found on Lebanese soil.
A rogatory letter is a request from a judge to a foreign judicial authority to investigate or carry out legal procedures on their behalf, under joint international agreements.
A Lebanese judicial source told Lebanese media outlets, including al-Modon and al-Anbaa, on Monday, 3 November, that Public Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation, Judge Jamal al-Hajjar, received an official cable from the French judiciary containing a rogatory commission asking Lebanon to pursue figures from the former regime.
The list names the former Air Force Intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Jamil al-Hassan, the head of the National Security Bureau Maj. Gen. Ali Mamlouk, and the director of investigations at Air Force Intelligence Maj. Gen. Abdul-Salam Mahmoud. France requested that inquiries be made, that the men be detained if present in Lebanon, and that they be handed over to the French authorities.
According to the judicial source, al-Hajjar tasked the Lebanese Internal Security Forces’ Information Branch with conducting the necessary investigations, determining whether al-Hassan, Mamlouk, and Mahmoud are on Lebanese territory, and arresting them.
The public prosecutor also requested that authorities monitor the entry and exit movements of the three and determine whether they entered Lebanon through legal channels, the source told al-Anbaa.
War-crimes charges
According to Asharq Al-Awsat on Monday, 3 November, the French rogatory letter follows ongoing proceedings by the French judiciary against Syria’s deposed president, Bashar al-Assad, and senior figures in his regime, including the three named officers.
The cases involve accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity that resulted in the killing of French nationals.
The letter states that three French citizens of Syrian origin were killed under torture while detained by Air Force Intelligence and interrogated by Abdul-Salam Mahmoud, Asharq Al-Awsat reported.
Citing a judicial source, the paper added that the rogatory letter included Lebanese phone numbers that communicate regularly with the named individuals.
The source said this was established through the monitoring of communications traffic conducted by French authorities as part of their pursuit of senior Assad-era officials, stressing that this point will be central to the follow-up and investigations by the Information Branch.
Flight of regime figures
Accounts about the fate of Assad-era officers and officials have differed since the regime fell. Some reportedly fled to Russia on the night opposition forces entered Damascus, others returned to their hometowns in Syria’s coastal cities, while still others later fled to Lebanon using official and unofficial crossings.
Reuters reported on 28 December 2024 that many of the ousted Assad’s officers and officials escaped to Lebanon, notably Hama massacre perpetrator Rifaat al-Assad (Hama, central Syria), former political adviser Bouthaina Shaaban, and the Assad family’s “black box” Ali Mamlouk.
More recently, CNN published covert camera footage showing Bassam al-Hassan, former chief of staff of the National Defense Forces, inside an apartment in Beirut.
A local source in Lebanon, who asked not to be named for security reasons, told Enab Baladi he saw former Syrian army brigadier Ghiath Dalla at a restaurant in Lebanon and that he moves about the area normally.
On 13 January, Lebanon’s Public Prosecution at the Court of Cassation ordered the release of 18 officers and members of the Fourth Division who had been detained in Lebanon since the day after the regime’s fall.
Syrian moves
Syrian sources previously told Sky News Arabia that the Syrian government has been in contact with Lebanon to secure the handover of some military personnel who fled there after the regime’s collapse.
Lebanese lawyer Nabil al-Halabi told Enab Baladi earlier that Lebanon’s Justice Ministry is drafting a new extradition agreement between the two countries. He explained that there is an older Syria–Lebanon extradition agreement, but it has long been frozen due to its lack of balance.
Al-Halabi added that, under the Convention against Torture, Lebanon is obligated not to forcibly return detainees to the authorities of a country where there are serious risks of torture. He noted, however, that Lebanese authorities have previously handed over wanted individuals to countries where they were subjected to torture and extrajudicial killing, despite the detainees’ refusal to depart and appeals from local and international human rights organizations urging Lebanon not to return them.
