General Jamil al-Hassan, Director of the Air Force Intelligence (AFI), is in Lebanon receiving medical treatment.
The German newspaper Der Spiegel, reported that the German government submitted an official request to the Lebanese government to arrest Hassan and turn him over to the Germans.
The German Federal Prosecutor, Peter Frank, said Hassan is accused of crimes against humanity, committed by his intelligence agency, which is considered the most brutal of all of Syria’s intelligence branches. The AFI have arrested, tortured, and killed Syrian dissidents since the outbreak of the protests in 2011.
Last June, Frank issued an international arrest warrant for Hassan.
Der Spiegel described the arrest warrant for Hassan as, “the most serious effort yet by a Western country” to hold Syria’s government accountable for the crimes committed against Syrians since a 2011 uprising sparked a brutal civil war.
The Berlin-based Syrian human rights defender, Anwar al-Bunni, said Germany has officially demanded that Lebanon arrest and turn over Hassan.
Der Spiegel reported that there is little chance that Lebanon will cooperate in this regards, due to the extraordinary influence of the pro-Assad Hezbollah.
The paper said the German request aims to limit the freedom of movement that Hassan and other top Assad aides still enjoy today.
Jamil al-Hassan is one of the most violent of the Assad entourage. In November 2016, he gave a rare interview to Russia’s Sputnik, in which he called for the extermination of all Assad dissidents.
He praised the late president Hafez al-Assad for annihilating all dissidents in Hama in 1982.
He also praised the Chinese government for their handling of the Tiananmen event, when the government killed a number of activists and put an end to the Chinese movement of change.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
