PARIS, July 2: Prosecutors said Tuesday they had asked Frances highest court to review the legality of a French arrest warrant for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over deadly chemical attacks on Syrian soil in 2013.
Syrian opposition say one of those attacks in August 2013 on the rebel-held suburbs of Damascus killed around 1,400 people, including more than 400 children, in one of the many horrors of the 13-year civil war.
Prosecutors said they had made the request to the Court of Cassation on Friday on judicial grounds, two days after an appeals court upheld the arrest order.
"This decision is by no means political. It is about having a legal question resolved," the prosecutors told AFP.
France is believed to have been the first country to issue an arrest warrant for a sitting foreign head of state in November.
Investigative magistrates specialised in so-called crimes against humanity, issued the warrant after several rights groups filed a complaint against Assad for his role in the chain of command for the alleged chemical attacks in the capitals suburbs on August 4, 5 and 21, 2013. —AFP
