Paris

The French government has issued an arrest warrant for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the alleged use of chemical weapons against civilians in the war-torn nation, a media report said citing a judicial source.

This is the first time that a nation has issued an arrest warrant for crimes against humanity for a sitting head of state in another country.

The source told to source that two investigative judges on Tuesday issued four warrants againstthe President, his brother Maher al-Assad, and two other senior officials, for complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Syrian human rights lawyer and a founder of the Syrian Center for Legal Studies and Research, Anwar al-Bunni told ato source on Wednesday that the decision was unprecedented.

An Interpol ‘Red Notice’ is expected to follow, Michael Chammas, one of the plaintiff’s lawyers, told to source.

ARed Notice is a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest someone pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action, according to Interpol.

All Interpol member states should then comply with the arrest warrant, Chammas added.

The legal case was brought forward by the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) and the Syrian Archive in March 2021 over the use of banned chemical weapons against civilians in the town of Douma and the district of Eastern Ghouta in August 2013, in attacks which killed more than 1,000 people, the plaintiffs said in a statement Wednesday.