DAMASCUS, Aug 19 (Reuters) – Lebanese authorities handed a former senior Syrian army officer to Damascus on Wednesday to face charges including murder and torture, Syria’s interior ministry said, marking the first handover of an Assad-era military officer by Lebanon since former President Bashar al-Assad was toppled in 2024.
Major General Adel Issa, a former commander of the Syrian army’s 17th Division and later ground forces in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, was transferred to Syrian custody after Lebanese authorities detained him earlier this month.
The ministry said Issa was wanted under an arrest warrant on 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.
His case is now before a Damascus referral judge before it can be sent to a criminal court for trial, the ministry added.
Issa denied the accusations while held in Lebanon, according to two people familiar with his arrest and extradition.
The transfer could set a precedent for scores of former Syrian security and military officials believed to have fled across the border after rebels led by now President Ahmed al-Sharaa ousted Assad in December 2024.
Issa, 67, was detained on August 8 after going to the Syrian embassy in Beirut to complete paperwork. Embassy officials alerted Lebanon’s prosecutor’s office that he was wanted in Syria, and Lebanese investigators took him into custody, the people said.
His transfer follows months of pressure by Damascus on Beirut to act against former Assad officers who sought refuge in Lebanon after his government collapsed.
Reuters reported in January that Syrian authorities had given Lebanese security officials a list of more than 200 former senior officers wanted by Damascus. A senior Syrian security official had travelled to Beirut in December to discuss their whereabouts, legal status and possible prosecution or extradition.
Syria’s new authorities have pursued former officials accused of abuses during Assad’s rule, while facing questions from rights groups over whether trials will meet international standards and provide due process.
A Damascus court this month sentenced Assad, who fled to Russia as rebels entered Damascus, to death in absentia on charges including murder, arbitrary detention and torture.
Issa’s handover could provide an early test of how Lebanon deals with people sought by Damascus, after decades in which Syria exerted enormous political and security influence over its smaller neighbour.
(Reporting by Feras Dalatey; Editing by Alistair Bell)
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