The 86-year-old today Rifaat al-Assad – uncle of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Vice President of Syria from 1984 to 1998 – is being referred to a Swiss federal criminal court accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The indictment “is based on events that unfolded in February 1982 in town Hama and in the context of the armed conflict between the Syrian armed forces and the Islamist opposition,” the federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement, two years after a search warrant was issued against him by Swiss justice.

In the Hama massacre, as it went down in history, it is estimated that 20,000 people were killed (or 40,000 according to the Syrian Commission for Human Rights and SNHR).

According to Wikipedia, it is the “deadliest act of violence perpetrated by an Arab state against its own population in the history of the modern Middle East.”

His role Rifaat al-Assad in the carnage

The prosecution accuses Rifaat al-Assad that “in the context of the armed conflict and the generalized attack against the inhabitants of the city of Hama in Syria in February 1982 he ordered, in his capacity as the commander of Defense Brigades and the head of operations in Hama, murders, tortureill-treatment and illegal detention”.

According to the prosecution, the Defense Brigades “were the main force responsible for the repression».

“In this context, many thousands of civilians they fell victim to various crimes, from direct executions as detention and torture in centers set up for this purpose, as many testimonies state,” he added.

The Swiss war crimes prosecutor’s investigation began following complaints by a Swiss non-governmental organization, TRIAL International, in December 2013.

The criminal proceedings were initiated on the basis of the principle of universal jurisdiction and the inalienability of war crimes, the Swiss prosecutor’s office explained.

A police check confirmed the presence of Bashar al-Assad’s uncle on Swiss soil when the process began.

A trial start date has not been set at this time.

Rifaat al-Assad returned to Syria in 2021 after spending many years in exile. Two years ago, the Swiss judiciary issued an investigation order against him, but kept it secret until 2023.