Lebanese judicial authorities have decided to extradite to Syria a former high-ranking officer of the army of the deposed president of the country, Bashar Assad, who is accused of crimes committed during the Syrian conflict, the Associated Press reports, referring to the statement of the Lebanese authorities.
Major General Adil Issa will become the first former Syrian soldier to be handed over by Lebanon to Damascus after the fall of the Assad regime at the end of 2024. He is expected to stand trial in Syria. The specific charges have not yet been officially disclosed.
On Tuesday, the employees of the General Security Department of Lebanon took Issa to one of the border checkpoints, where he should be handed over to the Syrian authorities. The decision was made in accordance with the 1951 agreement between the two countries, which provides for the extradition of those suspected of committing crimes.
Issa was arrested on August 8, after he came to the Syrian embassy in Beirut to complete documents. The representatives of the embassy informed the Lebanese prosecutor's office that the general is wanted by the Syrian authorities. After that, he was detained in the building of the Palace of Justice in Beirut.
Last week, Issa was questioned by the Chief Prosecutor of Lebanon at the Court of Cassation, Ahmad Rami Haj. The investigation was interested in crimes allegedly committed by the general in the Syrian provinces of Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa during the war that began in 2011.
According to court officials, Issa denied all charges, saying that as a soldier, he was simply following orders.
After the fall of the Assad dynasty, which was in power in Syria for nearly five decades, a number of ex-servicemen and employees of power structures fled to Lebanon. Some of them are still there. And in Syria, dozens of representatives of former security agencies accused of serious crimes have already been arrested and brought before the court.
Issa's handover comes amid large-scale trials against representatives of the former regime. Last week, the Syrian court sentenced Bashar Assad and his younger brother Maher to death in absentia. Their cousin, Brigadier General Atef Najib, became the most senior security officer of the former regime, who was sentenced to death after his arrest in Syria. Assad brothers fled to Russia after the fall of the regime.
According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Issa commanded the 17th division of the Syrian army, and in 2015 was appointed commander of the ground forces in Deir ez-Zor, bordering Iraq. He retired at the end of 2016.
