Rifaat al-Assad, an uncle of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, will go on trial in Switzerland over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The allegations date back to 1982 and stem from a clash between the Syrian military and the Islamist opposition in the western Syrian town of Hama.
Assad was the former Syrian vice president and a former army officer, who earned the nickname “The Butcher of Hama” from his long list of alleged crimes committed in February 1982.
There has been no official reaction from Syria or from Assad, who is believed to currently reside in Syria. He is being “charged with ordering homicides, acts of torture, cruel treatments, and illegal detentions,” according to a statement from Switzerland’s Office of Attorney General (OAG).
His alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed “in his capacity as commander of the defense brigades… and commander of operations in Hama.”
The OAG said the crimes occurred “within the context of the armed conflict and the widespread and systematic attack launched against the population of the city of Hama.”
Syrian security forces were deployed to Hama in February 1982 in order to put down an insurrection from the Islamist opposition, and the operation came to an end the same month.
“In this context, several thousands of civilians were allegedly victims of different abuses, ranging from immediate execution to detention and torture in specifically-created centers,” the OAG said.
The indictment notes the armed conflict was estimated to have resulted in the deaths of 3,000 to 60,000, the majority civilians.
International jurisdiction permits countries to prosecute crimes against humanity and war crimes, regardless of where they occurred.
The Swiss complaint against Assad was filed in 2013 by TRIAL International, a rights group that pressures Switzerland to prosecute alleged international criminals.
The attorney-general’s office had already requested permission in 2021 to issue an international arrest warrant against Assad, who is 86 years old, but the justice ministry insisted Switzerland did not have jurisdiction to pursue him.
A year later a Swiss court overruled the position of the justice ministry and noted that Assad had been staying at a hotel in Geneva when Swiss prosecutors began their investigation in 2013.
The OAG was allowed to issue an international arrest warrant in 2022. It remains unlikely the defendant, who returned to Syria after 37 years in exile, will show up for the trial and a date for the proceedings has not been set.
Swiss law allows for trials in absentia in certain conditions.
Assad was forced into exile in 1984 after a failed attempt to overthrow his brother, the late president Hafez al-Assad. He traveled to Switzerland and later France, where he worked in opposition to the Syrian regime, before returning home in 2021.
He has not made a public appearance since then but last April appeared in a photo with the current president, the first lady, and other family members.
