PARIS (AP) — France’s highest court on Friday upheld some of Syrian ex-leader Bashar Assad’s personal immunity as a head of state while green-lighting possible future war crime warrants, drawing criticism from human rights lawyers and Syrian activists.
The Cour de Cassation upheld Assad’s head-of-state immunity, but added that since he is no longer in office, “new arrest warrants may have been or may be issued against him for acts that may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity.”
The decision is a blow to activists who had hoped the court would set aside the immunity, a decision that could have had far-reaching consequences for other leaders accused of atrocities.
“From our side as a victim, this is a huge mistake. This will support another dictatorship to keep doing this kind of crime — they know they will enjoy immunity,” said Mazen Darwish, president of the Syrian Center for Media, which collected evidence of war crimes.
“It is a sad day for us,” Darwish said.
The president of the Cour de Cassation, Christophe Soulard, said in the ruling that 19 judges had declined to lift Assad’s immunity, but that a new arrest warrant could be issued to pave the way for his trial in absentia in France over the use of chemical weapons in Ghouta in 2013.
Human rights lawyers had sought to enable prosecution of leaders linked to atrocities while they are in power, not just when they leave. But international law currently forbids it.
“Under current international law, crimes against humanity and war crimes are not exceptions to the principle of jurisdictional immunity for sitting foreign heads of state," Soulard said.
Assad, the former leader of Syria now in exile in Russia, retained no lawyers for these charges and has denied that he was behind the chemical attacks.
“The court’s ruling is a missed opportunity for justice,” said Mariana Pena, a lawyer with the Open Society Justice Initiative, which helped bring the case to the court. But she said that the ruling “leaves the door open to the prosecution of Assad.”
The court also ruled on a case against a former Syrian government finance minister in Assad’s government, allowing that he could be prosecuted. Adib Mayaleh’s lawyers have argued that he too had immunity under international law. That is to some a silver lining in the court's ruling by establishing in France the right for courts to go after heads of state when they leave office and even current high-ranking officials. “This is a huge step, but not an absolute victory in the fight against impunity,” said lawyer Clémence Witt, who with Jeanne Sulzer brought the case against Assad to the court. She said that the French courts can now for the first time issue warrants for high-ranking officials currently in power with adequate evidence.
“Every official — except head of state, head of government and head of foreign affairs — can be prosecuted in France if we have evidence of genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity,” Witt said.
For more than 50 years, Syria was ruled by Hafez Assad and then his son Bashar. During the Arab Spring, rebellion broke out against their tyrannical rule in 2011 across the country of 23 million people, igniting a brutal 13-year civil war that killed more than 500,000 people, according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights.
Millions more fled to Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Europe. The Assad dynasty manipulated sectarian tensions to stay in power, a legacy driving renewed violence in Syria against minority groups, despite promises that the country’s new leaders will carve out a political future for Syria that includes and represents all of its communities.
The International Criminal Court isn't bound by head of state immunity and has issued arrests warrants for leaders accused of atrocities — like Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Gaza, and Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines.
The Syrian government denied in 2013 that it was behind the Ghouta attack, an accusation that the opposition rejected, because Assad’s forces were the only side in the brutal civil war to possess sarin.
Assad held onto power, aided militarily by Russia and Iranian-backed proxies, until late 2024, when a surprise assault by rebels swept into Aleppo and then Damascus, driving Assad to flee to safety to Russia on Dec. 8, 2024.
New warrants after Friday's ruling in France could lay the groundwork for the former leader’s trial in absentia or potential arrest, if he travels outside Russia.
Any trial of Assad, whether in absentia or if he leaves Russia, would mean this evidence could then “be brought to light,” Pena said, including an enormous trove of classified and secret evidence amassed by the judges during their investigations.
Syrians often took great personal risk to gather evidence of war crimes. Darwish said that in the aftermath of a chlorine gas attack in Douma, for example, teams collected witness testimonies, images of devastation and soil samples. Others then tracked down and interviewed defectors to build a “chain of command” for the Syrian government's chemical weapons production and use.
“We link it directly to the president himself, Bashar al-Assad,” he said.
Syria today remains beholden to many awful legacies of the Assad dynasty. Poverty, sectarianism, destruction and violence still haunt the country.
Syrian authorities are now investigating nearly 300 people for crimes during several days of fighting on the coast earlier this year. The new interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa in Damascus have pledged to work with the United Nations on investigating further war crimes of the Assad government and the civil war.
While disappointed in the verdict in France, Darwish is working on 29 cases against Assad and other figures who have fled to Russia, the Gulf, Lebanon and Europe. He said that many Syrians hope Assad sits for a fair trial in Syria.
“It should be done in Damascus, but we need also a lot of guarantees that we will have a fair trial even for this suspect," he said.
His organization has already received requests to bring to court war crimes accusations against those involved in recent bloodshed in southern Syria.
“So anyone, whatever his name, or the regime, or their authority, we will keep fighting this type of crime,” Darwish said.
Sam McNeil reported from Brussels. John Leicester contributed to this report from Paris.
FILE - In this Dec. 9, 2010 file photo, then-Syrian President Bashar al-Assad addresses reporters at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Most American presidents aspire to the kind of greatness that prompts future generations to name important things in their honor.
Donald Trump isn't leaving it to future generations.
As the first year of his second term wraps up, his administration and allies have put the president’s name on the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Kennedy Center performing arts venue and a new class of battleships.
That’s on top of the “Trump Accounts” for tax-deferred investments, the TrumpRx government website soon to offer direct sales of prescription drugs, the “Trump Gold Card” visa that costs at least $1 million and the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, a transit corridor included in a deal his administration brokered between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
On Friday, he plans to attend a ceremony in Florida where local officials will dedicate a 4-mile (6-kilometer) stretch of road from the airport to his Mar-a-Lago estate as President Donald J. Trump Boulevard.
It’s unprecedented for a sitting president to embrace tributes of that number and scale, especially those proffered by members of his administration. And while past sitting presidents have typically been honored by local officials naming schools and roads after them, it's exceedingly rare for airports, federal buildings, warships or other government assets to be named for someone still in power.
“At no previous time in history have we consistently named things after a president who was still in office,” said Jeffrey Engel, the David Gergen Director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “One might even extend that to say a president who is still alive. Those kind of memorializations are supposed to be just that — memorials to the passing hero.”
White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said the TrumpRx website linked to the president's deals to lower the price of some prescription drugs, along with “overdue upgrades of national landmarks, lasting peace deals, and wealth-creation accounts for children are historic initiatives that would not have been possible without President Trump’s bold leadership.”
"The Administration’s focus isn’t on smart branding, but delivering on President Trump’s goal of Making America Great Again," Huston said.
The White House pointed out that the nation's capital was named after President George Washington and the Hoover Dam was named after President Herbert Hoover while each was serving as president.
For Trump, it’s a continuation of the way he first etched his place onto the American consciousness, becoming famous as a real estate developer who affixed his name in big gold letters on luxury buildings and hotels, a casino and assorted products like neckties, wine and steaks.
As he ran for president in 2024, the candidate rolled out Trump-branded business ventures for watches, fragrances, Bibles and sneakers — including golden high tops priced at $799. After taking office again last year, Trump's businesses launched a Trump Mobile phone company, with plans to unveil a gold-colored smartphone and a cryptocurrency memecoin named $TRUMP.
That’s not to be confused with plans for a physical, government-issued Trump coin that U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach said the U.S. Mint is planning.
Trump has also reportedly told the owners of Washington’s NFL team that he would like his name on the Commanders’ new stadium. The team’s ownership group, which has the naming rights, has not commented on the idea. But a White House spokeswoman in November called the proposed name “beautiful” and said Trump made the rebuilding of the stadium possible.
The addition of Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center in December so outraged independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont that he introduced legislation this week to ban the naming or renaming of any federal building or land after a sitting president — a ban that would retroactively apply to the Kennedy Center and Institute of Peace.
“I think he is a narcissist who likes to see his name up there. If he owns a hotel, that’s his business,” Sanders said in an interview. “But he doesn’t own federal buildings.”
Sanders likened Trump's penchant for putting his name on government buildings and more to the actions of authoritarian leaders throughout history.
“If the American people want to name buildings after a president who is deceased, that’s fine. That’s what we do,” Sanders said. “But to use federal buildings to enhance your own position very much sounds like the ‘Great Leader’ mentality of North Korea, and that is not something that I think the American people want.”
Although some of the naming has been suggested by others, the president has made clear he’s pleased with the tributes.
Three months after the announcement of the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, a name the White House says was proposed by Armenian officials, the president gushed about it at a White House dinner.
“It’s such a beautiful thing, they named it after me. I really appreciate it. It’s actually a big deal,” he told a group of Central Asian leaders.
Engel, the presidential historian, said the practice can send a signal to people "that the easiest way to get access and favor from the president is to play to his ego and give him something or name something after him.”
Some of the proposals for honoring Trump include legislation in Congress from New York Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney that would designate June 14 as “Trump’s Birthday and Flag Day," placing the president with the likes of Martin Luther King Jr., George Washington and Jesus Christ, whose birthdays are recognized as national holidays.
Florida Republican Rep. Greg Steube has introduced legislation that calls for the Washington-area rapid transit system, known as the Metro, to be renamed the “Trump Train.” North Carolina Republican Rep. Addison McDowell has introduced legislation to rename Washington Dulles International Airport as Donald J. Trump International Airport.
McDowell said it makes sense to give Dulles a new name since Trump has already announced plans to revamp the airport, which currently is a tribute to former Secretary of State John Foster Dulles.
The congressman said he wanted to honor Trump because he feels the president has been a champion for combating the scourge of fentanyl, a personal issue for McDowell after his brother’s overdose death. But he also cited Trump’s efforts to strike peace deals all over the world and called him “one of the most consequential presidents ever.”
“I think that’s somebody that deserves to be honored, whether they’re still the president or whether they’re not," he said.
More efforts are underway in Florida, Trump’s adopted home.
Republican state lawmaker Meg Weinberger said she is working on an effort to rename Palm Beach International Airport as Donald J. Trump International Airport, a potential point of confusion with the Dulles effort.
The road that the president will see christened Friday is not the first Florida asphalt to herald Trump upon his return to the White House.
In the south Florida city of Hialeah, officials in December 2024 renamed a street there as President Donald J. Trump Avenue.
Trump, speaking at a Miami business conference the next month, called it a “great honor” and said he loved the mayor for it.
“Anybody that names a boulevard after me, I like,” he said.
He added a few moments later: “A lot of people come back from Hialeah, they say, ‘They just named a road after you.' I say, ‘That’s OK.’ It’s a beginning, right? It’s a start.”
FILE - A sign for the Rose Garden is seen near the Presidential Walk of Fame on the Colonnade at the White House, Jan. 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
FILE - President Donald Trump speaks with reporters as a flag pole is installed on the South Lawn of the White House, June 18, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
FILE - Workers add President Donald Trump's name to the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, after a Trump-appointed board voted to rename the institution, in Washington, Dec. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - A poster showing the Trump Gold Card is seen as President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House, Sept. 19, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, file)
