France and Syria Call on Lebanon to Arrest Jamil Hassan

Welat TV – Erbil

Syria and France have requested that Lebanon arrest former head of Syria’s Air Force Intelligence, Jamil Hassan, who is accused of committing war crimes following the popular protests of 2011 and is believed to be present on Lebanese territory.

According to a report published by The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, January 11, 2025, a French official confirmed that both Paris and Damascus have asked Beirut to arrest Hassan, who was convicted in absentia in France for his role in crimes against humanity.

He is also wanted under an arrest warrant in Germany and by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for his alleged role in the kidnapping and torture of American citizens.

The newspaper quoted a senior Lebanese judicial official as saying that the Lebanese government does not have confirmed information about Hassan’s whereabouts. Hassan reportedly fled Syria following the collapse of the Assad regime on December 8, 2024. Hassan’s hiding place remains unknown, though many current and former Syrian and Western officials suspect that he is in Lebanon.

Crackdown on the Syrian Uprising

According to a security document cited by the newspaper, Hassan and other senior security chiefs met in central Damascus to plan a campaign of deception and violent repression two years after the outbreak of the Syrian uprising in 2011. They drafted a plan outlined in a document initialed by the participants.

A former Syrian security official showed the document to The Wall Street Journal, and it was corroborated by another official.

According to the document and other records, Hassan favored the use of brute and bloody force against protesters and opposition figures. His message to Assad was reportedly: “Do what your father did in Hama,” in reference to the 1982 Hama massacre, carried out by Hafez al-Assad, which resulted in the killing of more than 40,000 people.

Interpol Seeks Hassan’s Arrest

Lebanon received an official notice from Interpol days after the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, urging judicial and security authorities to arrest Hassan if he is found on Lebanese territory and to hand him over to the United States, according to Lebanese judicial sources cited by Reuters. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Miqati announced that Lebanon would cooperate with Interpol’s request to arrest the former Syrian intelligence chief.

Speaking to Reuters, Miqati said: “We are committed to cooperating with Interpol’s notice regarding the arrest of the former head of Syria’s Air Force Intelligence, and we continue to cooperate on all matters related to the international system.”