\n<\/p>\n
Lebanon has handed Syria a former general who served under the ousted regime of Bashar al-Assad, in the first extradition of its kind since his government fell.<\/b><\/p>\n
Maj Gen Adel Issa, 67, is accused of a raft of crimes allegedly committed during the Syrian civil war, which ended in December 2024 when rebel forces took the capital, Damascus, and Assad fled.<\/p>\n
Issa was detained on 8 August after visiting the Syrian embassy in Beirut to complete paperwork and was transferred into Syrian custody on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The handover follows pressure from Syria’s new authorities on Lebanon to act against former security and military officials who fled across the border after Assad’s fall.<\/p>\n
The Syrian interior ministry said Issa led ground forces in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor until 2016.<\/p>\n
He is accused of charges including murder as well as “torture leading to death and crimes of aggression with the aim of inciting civil war and sectarian fighting”, it said.<\/p>\n
Judicial officials told the BBC that Issa denied the charges during his arrest.<\/p>\n
The decision to extradite him was made under an agreement between the two countries dating back to 1951.<\/p>\n
Issa’s case will now go before a referral judge in Damascus, who will decide whether it should proceed to a criminal court.<\/p>\n
In January, Syria gave Lebanese officials a list of more than 200 former senior officers it wants prosecuted.<\/p>\n
Since taking power, authorities led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa have pursued cases against dozens of former officials.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, a Damascus court sentenced Assad and his brother, Maher, to death in absentia over abuses committed during the civil war. They fled to Moscow when Sharaa’s forces seized power.<\/p>\n
Their cousins, Waseem al-Assad and Atif Najib, have been arrested in Syria and also sentenced to death.<\/p>\n
Additional reporting by BBC Arabic’s Joya Berbery in Beirut<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n