Press release
Syrian Opposition Coalition
Department of Media and Communications
June 26, 2024
The Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC) welcomes the decision by a French court to uphold the validity of an arrest warrant for the criminal Bashar al-Assad for committing crimes against humanity, including the deadly chemical attack that took place in 2013 in Eastern Ghouta in the Damascus countryside, which claimed the lives of 1,144 people and injured about six thousand others.
The SOC stresses that the families of the victims view positively and appreciate these efforts, which provide them with moral support and put additional pressure on the Assad regime. This decision is seen as a step toward achieving justice for the Syrian people. The SOC also calls on countries around the world and human rights organizations to take similar steps, exerting all kinds of pressure on the Assad regime, and resorting to the International Criminal Court to ensure accountability for hundreds of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Assad regime and its partners, which are documented with numerous pieces of evidence and testimonies.
The SOC points out that holding the perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity accountable supports the chances of reaching a sustainable political solution, which is the responsibility of the international community as a whole, in accordance with the Security Council resolutions on Syria, especially UN Resolutions 2254 (2015) and 2118 (2013). Fully and decisively implementing these resolutions will help achieve the aspirations of the Syrian people for a free, democratic state that safeguards human rights and dignity.
