Adel Issa extradited to Syria from Lebanon

Syrian authorities have received former Syrian major general Adel Issa from Lebanon after his extradition, Syria's interior ministry said Wednesday.

The ministry said Issa, a former officer under deposed ruler Bashar al-Assad, had been handed over after Syria issued an arrest warrant for him in absentia. It said he is accused of crimes including murder, torture leading to death, and crimes of aggression aimed at inciting civil war and sectarian fighting.

The ministry described Issa as a former commander of the army's 17th division and commander of ground forces in eastern Deir Ezzor until 2016.

A Lebanese judicial official told AFP a day earlier that Lebanon had decided to extradite Issa to stand trial over crimes he is accused of committing on Syrian soil during the Assad era. The official said the decision was made under a 1951 judicial agreement between Beirut and Damascus.

Another Lebanese judicial official had previously told AFP that Issa, 67, went to the Syrian embassy in Beirut earlier this month for paperwork. The official said embassy staff called Lebanese authorities to detain him after learning of an arrest warrant from Damascus for killing and crimes against humanity during his time with the Syrian army.

Since Assad's fall in December 2024, Syrian authorities have arrested dozens of people they say committed crimes during Syria's 13-year civil war, and trials began in April. Last week, Syria sentenced Bashar al-Assad and his brother Maher in absentia to death for atrocities committed during the conflict, in the first such ruling under the new authorities.