Lebanon has handed over a former senior Syrian army officer to Damascus to face charges related to murder and torture, the first such transfer since former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was toppled in 2024.
The transfer involved Major-General Adel Issa, a former commander of the Syrian army’s 17th Division who later led ground forces in the eastern province of Deir ez-Zur.
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Syria’s Ministry of Interior confirmed his delivery into Syrian custody in a statement on Wednesday.
“Today, Syrian authorities received from the Lebanese authorities the former officer in the defunct regime army, Major-General Adel Issa,” the ministry said.
It added that a Syrian arrest warrant had accused Issa of charges including intentional homicide, facilitating a felony, killing more than two people, torture leading to death, and crimes aimed at inciting civil war and sectarian strife.
A Damascus referral judge will hear his case, which could then be sent to a criminal court for trial, the ministry added.
Issa, 67, has denied the accusations, the Reuters news agency reported, citing two people familiar with his arrest and extradition.
He was detained on August 8 after going to the Syrian embassy in Beirut to complete paperwork.
Embassy officials alerted the prosecutor’s office in Lebanon that he was wanted in Syria, and Lebanese investigators took him into custody, Reuters reported.
His transfer follows months of pressure by Damascus for Lebanon to act against former government officers, as well as security and military officials, who sought refuge in Lebanon after the Assad regime collapsed in December 2024.
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President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former rebel leader, has led the country since.
In January, Syrian authorities gave Lebanese security officials a list of more than 200 former senior officers wanted by Damascus.
Earlier this month, a Damascus court sentenced al-Assad to death in absentia on charges including murder, arbitrary detention and torture. Al-Assad lives in exile in Moscow.
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