Syria receives Assad-era general after extradition from Lebanon
Syria's interior ministry said authorities took custody of a former general under deposed ruler Bashar al-Assad who was extradited from Lebanon on Wednesday and is accused of crimes including murder and torture.
"Today, Syrian authorities received from the Lebanese authorities the former officer in the defunct regime army, major general Adel Issa," a ministry statement said, after Syria issued an arrest warrant in absentia for him.
Issa was formerly the commander of the army's 17th division and commander of ground forces in eastern Deir Ezzor until 2016.
He is accused of crimes including murder, "torture leading to death, and crimes of aggression with the aim of inciting civil war and sectarian fighting", the ministry added.
A Lebanese judicial official had told AFP a day earlier that Lebanon had decided to extradite Issa "to stand trial for crimes he is accused of committing on Syrian soil" during the Assad era.
The official said the decision was made under a 1951 judicial agreement between Beirut and Damascus.
Issa, 67, had headed to the Syrian embassy in Beirut for paperwork earlier this month, another judicial official had told AFP at the time.
Staff called on the Lebanese authorities to detain him after learning of an arrest warrant from Damascus for "crimes of killing and crimes against humanity during his time with the Syrian army".
Since Assad's fall in December 2024, Syrian authorities have arrested dozens of people they say committed crimes during the country's 13-year civil war, and trials began in April.
Last week, Syria sentenced Bashar al-Assad and his brother Maher in absentia to death for atrocities committed during the conflict, in the first such ruling under the new authorities.
Source: Agence France Presse
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