Lebanon Hands Over Assad Era General Adel Issa To Syria Over War Crimes

Lebanon has handed former Syrian Major General Adel Issa to Damascus after questioning him over alleged crimes committed during Syria’s civil war. He is expected to face trial in Syria.

Issa is the first Assad era military officer handed over by Lebanon since Bashar Assad was ousted in December 2024. Lebanese security officials took him to the Syrian border on Tuesday and transferred him to Syrian authorities.

The handover was made under a 1951 agreement between Lebanon and Syria that allows the two countries to transfer people wanted for crimes. Lebanon’s judiciary decided that the legal conditions for his transfer had been met.

Issa was arrested on August 8 after he went to the Syrian embassy in Beirut for paperwork. Embassy officials told Lebanese authorities that he was wanted in Syria. He had entered Lebanon illegally after Assad’s fall and was held at Beirut’s Palace of Justice.

Lebanese prosecutor Judge Ahmad Rami Hajj questioned Issa over alleged crimes in Deir el Zour and Raqqa during the war. Issa denied the charges and said he was a military officer who was simply carrying out orders.

Issa previously commanded the Syrian army’s 17th Division. In 2015, he was moved to command ground forces in Deir el Zour, near the Iraqi border. He retired in late 2016.

His transfer comes as Syria’s new authorities pursue former regime figures. Last week, a Syrian court sentenced Bashar Assad and his brother Maher Assad to death in absentia. Assad and Maher fled to Russia after opposition forces entered Damascus.

Assad’s cousin Atef Najib, a former senior security official, was also sentenced to death while in custody. On Tuesday, another cousin, Wassim al Assad, was sentenced to death after being convicted of multiple murders and torture.

The developments come days after Lebanon’s parliament voted to abolish the death penalty, a move that will take effect after publication in the official gazette.

Syria’s war began in 2011 after anti-government protests and later became a long civil war. It killed more than half a million people and wounded over one million.