Volkswacht Bodensee - French court jails ex-Syria rebel for 10 years for war crimes

Majdi Nema, a former spokesman of the rebel group Jaish al-Islam, was found guilty by a Paris court of complicity in war crimes, specifically of conscription of minors aged 15 to 18, and helping to prepare war crimes.

"We are relieved," Marc Bailly, a rights lawyer for Syrian civil groups.

"Today justice was served first and foremost for Syrians," he said.

Romain Ruiz, one of the defence lawyers, called the verdict "relatively incomprehensible", adding that defence was mulling whether to appeal.

French authorities arrested Nema in the southern city of Marseille in 2020, after he travelled to the country on a student exchange programme.

He was charged under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows states to prosecute suspects accused of serious crimes regardless of where they were committed.

This was the first time that crimes committed during Syria's civil war were tried in France under universal jurisdiction.

Nema -- better known by his nom-de-guerre of Islam Alloush -- told the Paris court there was no evidence to back charges against him.

He has said he only had a "limited role" in the armed group that held sway in the rebel-held suburbs of Damascus between 2013 and 2016.

Jaish al-Islam was one of the main opposition groups fighting Bashar al-Assad's government before Islamist-led fighters toppled him in December. It has also been accused of terrorising civilians in areas it controlled.

Nema, who had faced a maximum of 20 years in prison, had in particular been accused of helping recruit children and teenagers to fight for the group.

- Universal jurisdiction -

His arrest came after rights groups, including the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), filed a criminal complaint in France in 2019 against members of Jaish al-Islam for their alleged crimes.

It was the FIDH that discovered Nema was in France during research into Jaish al-Islam's hierarchy and informed the French authorities.

Born in 1988, Nema was a captain in the Syrian armed forces before defecting in 2012 and joining the group that would in 2013 become known as Jaish al-Islam.

He told investigators that he left Eastern Ghouta in May 2013 and crossed the border to Turkey, where he worked as the group's spokesman, before leaving the group in 2016.

Nema travelled to France in November 2019 under a university exchange programme and was arrested in January 2020.

France has since 2010 been able to try cases under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which argues some crimes are so serious that all states have the obligation to prosecute offenders.

The country's highest court upheld this principle in 2023, allowing for the investigation into Nema to continue.

J.Marty--VB