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France 'opens war crimes inquiry' against Assad regime

Criminal probe of Syrian president's regime for alleged atrocities committed between 2011 and 2013 began on September 15th.

La rédaction de Mediapart

This article is freely available.

French authorities have launched a criminal probe of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's regime for alleged war crimes committed between 2011 and 2013, sources said, reports Yahoo! News.

Paris prosecutors opened a preliminary war crimes inquiry on September 15, a source close to the case told AFP. A diplomatic source confirmed the launch of the probe.

The investigation is focusing on evidence provided by a former Syrian army photographer known by the codename "Caesar," who defected and fled the country in 2013, bringing with him some 55,000 graphic photographs of scenes from the brutal conflict.

The announcement comes as the four-year war in Syria takes centre-stage at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where US president Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have clashed over how to bring an end to the crisis.

Read more of this AFP report published by Yahoo! News.