{"id":254416,"date":"2026-08-18T13:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T13:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/254416\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T13:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T13:09:08","slug":"lebanon-transfers-former-assad-military-officer-to-damascus-for-alleged-crimes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/254416\/","title":{"rendered":"Lebanon transfers former Assad military officer to Damascus for alleged crimes"},"content":{"rendered":"

BEIRUT (AP) \u2014 Lebanon\u2019s<\/a> judicial authorities have decided to hand over a former senior Syrian military officer under ousted President Bashar Assad<\/a> to Damascus after questioning him over crimes he allegedly committed<\/a> during the country\u2019s conflict, officials said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Maj. Gen. Adel Issa will be the first military officer to be handed over by Lebanon since Assad\u2019s fall in late 2024. He is expected to stand trial in his home country. There were no immediate details on the alleged crimes.<\/p>\n

The decision comes days after a vote in parliament that made Lebanon the first Arab country to abolish the death penalty<\/a>, a step that will become formal once it is published in the Lebanese Official Gazette.<\/p>\n

The judicial officials said Issa is being handed over to Syria in accordance with a 1951 agreement between the countries that calls for handing over suspected criminals.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday afternoon, Issa was taken by members of Lebanon\u2019s General Security Directorate, who will drive him to a border crossing and hand him over to Syrian authorities, two judicial and two security officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.<\/p>\n

After Syrian fighters opposed to Assad marched into Damascus to end the Assad family\u2019s five-decade rule in December 2024, a number of military and security officers fled to Lebanon, where some remain.<\/p>\n

Dozens of other former members of his security agencies accused of atrocities have been arrested and put on trial in Syria.<\/p>\n

Last week, a Syrian court sentenced<\/a> Assad and his younger brother Maher to death in absentia while their maternal cousin, Brig. Gen. Atef Najib, became the most senior security official to be sentenced to death while in custody. The Assad brothers fled to Russia during the ouster.<\/p>\n

Issa was questioned last week by judge Ahmad Rami Hajj, Lebanon\u2019s public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation, over alleged crimes he had committed in Syria\u2019s eastern province of Deir el-Zour and the northern province of Raqqa during Syria\u2019s conflict that broke out in 2011.<\/p>\n

The judicial officials told The Associated Press that Issa denied all the charges against him, saying he was a military officer carrying out orders.<\/p>\n

The Syrian embassy in Beirut sent Issa\u2019s charge sheet to Lebanese judicial authorities earlier this month, the officials said.<\/p>\n

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Issa was detained<\/a> on Aug. 8 when he went to the Syrian embassy in Beirut for some paperwork. Embassy officials contacted Lebanon\u2019s prosecutor\u2019s office to tell them that Issa is wanted in Syria. He has been held at Beirut\u2019s Palace of Justice detention center.<\/p>\n

Issa had fled to Lebanon by crossing illegally after Assad\u2019s fall, the officials said.<\/p>\n

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said after commanding the Syrian army\u2019s 17th Division, Issa was moved in 2015 to command ground forces in Deir el-Zour that borders Iraq, and that he retired in late 2016.<\/p>\n

Syria\u2019s conflict, which began with anti-government protests in March 2011 before turning into a civil war, left half a million people dead and over 1 million wounded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BEIRUT (AP) \u2014 Lebanon\u2019s judicial authorities have decided to hand over a former senior Syrian military officer under…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[32],"tags":[719,2371,67264,70297,887,12713,197,3375,93,768,95,1595,200,2773,82],"class_list":["post-254416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lebanon","tag-2024-2025-mideast-wars","tag-2024-2026-mideast-wars","tag-adel-issa","tag-ahmad-rami-hajj","tag-bashar-assad","tag-capital-punishment","tag-general-news","tag-indictments","tag-lebanon","tag-military-and-defense","tag-syria","tag-syria-government","tag-war-and-unrest","tag-war-crimes","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117116676558936627","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}