![A member of the Alawite community pastes on a wall, in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli 06 December 2007, pictures of Syrian opposition leader Rifaat al-Assad (R) and his son Ribal. Rifaat al-Assad is the younger brother of the late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, and the uncle of the current one, Bashar al-Assad, all of whom come from the minority Alawite Muslim sect. [RAMZI HAIDAR/AFP via Getty Images]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-78279554.jpg?fit=1200%2C776&ssl=1)
The Swiss Federal Criminal Court intends to dismiss the lawsuit against the uncle of former Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, Rifaat Al-Assad, who is accused of “war crimes and crimes against humanity”. The case was opened in December 2013 after efforts by Swiss NGO TRIAL International.
According to newspapers Le Matin Dimanche and SonntagsZeitung as well as the NGO on Sunday, Rifaat Al-Assad was accused specifically of “issuing an order to commit killings and torture, mistreatment, and illegal arrests while leading the Defence Companies, in the context of the armed conflict in the city of Hama in February 1982. This massacre, which killed between 10,000 and 40,000, earned him the title of the ‘Hama butcher’.”
However, on 29 November, a few days before the ouster of Bashar Al-Assad, the Swiss Federal Criminal Court informed the victims’ representatives that it wished to dismiss the lawsuit.
“The Swiss court informed the representatives of the victims that the man, who is in his eighties, suffers from diseases that prevent him from travelling and attending his trial,” reported the two newspapers.
The case against Rifaat Al-Assad was opened when TRIAL International learned of his presence in a Geneva hotel in 2013 after receiving notifications from Syrians residing in the city. Yesterday, the NGO’s legal advisor, Benoit Meystre, stressed that TRIAL International could confirm the intention of the court as told to the parties regarding dismissal, but that the official decision has not yet been made.
“In the event of dismissal, the possibility of appeal will be studied, and it is very likely that this decision will be challenged,” explained Meystre. “The NGO is not eligible to appeal, so if there is an appeal, the decision will be made by the complaining parties.”
Rifaat Al-Assad portrayed himself as opposing his nephew Bashar for many years, having left Syria in 1984 after a failed coup attempt against his brother — Bashar’s father — the then-president, Hafez Al-Assad. He returned in 2021 after 37 years in exile in France in order to escape a judicial ruling sentencing him to four years on charges of money laundering and embezzlement of Syrian public funds.
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