Because the situation is \u201cextremely different\u201d from the one when Majdi Nema was indicted, his lawyers Rapha\u00ebl Kempf and Romain Ruiz believe \u201cthis trial should not be held in France\u201d. \u201cFor justice to play a part in a democratic transition, it must be dispensed in the country, as close as possible to its citizens and victims,\u201d explains Kempf. \u201cI fear that by organizing this trial, the French justice system is confiscating the Syrian people\u2019s own justice and legitimizing the possibility of foreign states doing justice in the place of Syrians.\u201d However, as Bailly points out, it is hard to imagine that the new Syrian government, itself made up of former rebels, would be able to organize such a trial today. The civil parties\u2019 lawyer also stresses the current \u201cabsence of an independent judicial authority\u201d, as well as lack of guarantees on \u201crespect for fundamental rights, including the rights of the defence\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This debate is the backdrop to the start of the Nema trial, which will take place from April 29 to May 27 before the Paris Assize Court under the principle of universal jurisdiction<\/a>. The French court will be examining Nema\u2019s role and responsibility in crimes attributed to Jaysh al-Islam between 2013 and 2016, mainly in eastern Ghouta. Nema, who went by the name Islam Alloush, is suspected of complicity in war crimes for having helped to enlist minors, providing \u201cassistance\u201d in their recruitment and military training, and helping disseminate propaganda designed to \u201cindoctrinate\u201d them. He is also accused of \u201ccolluding\u201d with the Jaysh al-Islam group \u201cin his capacity as spokesman, intelligence officer and strategic advisor to the group\u2019s leadership\u201d, with a view to \u201cpreparing war crimes\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is the second criminal trial concerning crimes committed in Syria,\u201d the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor\u2019s Office points out in a press release. Last May, a first trial<\/a> took place of three senior Syrian regime officials, but it was held in absentia. This time, the accused will be present. Nema, who risks 20 years\u2019 imprisonment, denies all the charges against him. He does not deny having acted as the group\u2019s spokesman, but insists that his role within Jaysh al-Islam was limited. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Three organizations are acting as civil parties against Nema - the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM) and the Human Rights League (LDH) - as well as five individuals. The latter have through their lawyers requested anonymity, due to a climate of \u201cthreats and pressure\u201d against them, which \u201chas existed throughout the investigation\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The trial\u2019s first challenge, according to Bailly, is to win recognition that Jaysh al-Islam was \u201ca group that committed war crimes, and a group that enlisted and conscripted minors\u201d. In the midst of the Syrian revolution, the Salafist-based rebel group was formed in 2011 by Zahran Alloush; it was initially called Liwa al-Islam (\u201cThe Brigade of Islam\u201d) and then became Jaysh al-Islam (\u201cThe Army of Islam\u201d) in 2013. The group was officially disbanded a few weeks after the fall of Bashar al-Assad as part of an agreement reached in late 2024<\/a> between all the armed groups and Ahmed al-Charaa\u2019s new government - allowing them to be integrated, in particular, into the Ministry of Defence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jaysh al-Islam is active mainly in eastern Ghouta, a region on the outskirts of Damascus known for having been besieged and bombarded by the al-Assad regime. It is also known for having been the scene of numerous acts of violence against civilians<\/a>. These are blamed on the rebel groups that had entrenched themselves there, in particular Jaysh al-Islam, which exercised political and military control over the area until 2018 when the al-Assad regime regained control of the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the indictment that we consulted, Nema is a former Syrian army officer who defected in 2012 to join the rebels and fight the regime. More precisely, he joined Zahran Alloush, whom he had met a few years earlier in the regime\u2019s jails, and with whom he sympathized. At the beginning of 2013, the young Syrian, aged 24, was appointed spokesman and representative of Jaysh al-Islam; he then became \u201cIslam Alloush\u201d. In May of the same year, according to the indictment, he said he left eastern Ghouta for Turkey, from where he was to carry out his duties. In 2016, shortly after Zahran Alloush\u2019s death, Nema left Jaysh al-Islam, although his official resignation was apparently in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Between 2013 and 2016, when the crimes of which Nema is accused were committed, was his role limited to relaying information about the group\u2019s actions? Did he return to eastern Ghouta? This is what will be debated during the trial over the next five weeks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To assess Nema\u2019s individual responsibility, according to Bailly, it will first be necessary to understand \u201cthe ambivalence of Jaysh al-Islam\u2019s discourse\u201d and the \u201ctwo faces of the accused\u201d. \u201cJaysh al-Islam presented itself, particularly to the international community, as a respectable group that could be at the negotiating table and that defended the Geneva Conventions,\u201d he says. \u201cBut operationally, on the ground, it is a group that cannot stand dissent and that wanted to impose its caliphate in eastern Ghouta, even if it meant kidnapping and torturing its opponents.\u201d Similarly, the civil parties\u2019 lawyer paints a two-faced portrait of Nema: \u201cHe worked for a think tank and studied\u201d, but \u201cwe see him in uniform, armed with an M16, in military training camps\u201d, \u201chelping to polish Jaysh al-Islam\u2019s message\u201d to help enlist minors and thus \u201cenable the group to carry out its plan\u201d in eastern Ghouta. The lawyer said material evidence and several witness statements should be presented at the trial to corroborate the fact that \u201cMajdi Nema was an important and influential person within Jaysh al-Islam\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On this point, the defence denounces a kind of \u201ctrap set by the prosecution\u201d that \u201cpolarized the debates\u201d on what Jaysh al-Islam was. \u201cI think this is one of the limitations of this trial,\" continues Ruiz. \u201cFirstly, because we have no way of imagining, with all the necessary nuance, what Jaysh al-Islam might have been like for the population of eastern Ghouta. But also because I believe that by polarizing debates about the group, we lose the essence of what this trial should be: we are here to find out whether Majdi Nema committed one or more war crimes.\u201d His lawyers believe that these accusations will not stand up to scrutiny. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The case stems from a complaint lodged in June 2019 with the Paris court\u2019s Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes division by the FIDH, SCM, LDH and seven individuals. It targets the group Jaysh al-Islam and \u201cIslam Alloush\u201d, alias Nema. The plaintiffs accuse the group of being linked to the enforced disappearance<\/a> of the \u201cDouma Four<\/a>\u201d. These are four emblematic human rights defenders who are members of the Centre for the Documentation of Violations in Syria. Lawyer Razan Zaitouneh and her colleagues Samira al-Khalil, Wa\u00ebl Hamada and Nazem al-Hammadi were abducted on December 9, 2013 in the southern town of Douma and have never been found. The activists were documenting the regime\u2019s crimes and, shortly before their disappearance, were focusing on those committed by Jaysh al-Islam in eastern Ghouta. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In January 2020, a few months after the complaint was filed, Nema came to France on a study trip and was arrested by French gendarmes in Marseille, where he was staying for three months. It was a \u201cviolent arrest\u201d, say Nema\u2019s lawyers, to the extent that his face was badly bruised and \u201cswollen\u201d. The two lawyers say that they filed a complaint for police violence but have no news of follow-up. At the time of the incident, the gendarmes defended themselves by explaining that Nema had resisted arrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Charges of complicity in enforced disappearance in the \u201cDouma Four\u201d case were dismissed by the Paris Court of Appeal in November 2023. However, in its ruling, it considered that Jaysh al-Islam \u201cmust be held responsible\u201d for their abductions. These allegations are supported by several witnesses who stated during the investigation that they had seen the victims in Jaysh al-Islam prisons. However, the Paris Court of Appeal pointed out that for the charge of enforced disappearance to be legally established, it must have been committed by \u201cone or more agents of the State\u201d or by \u201ca person or group of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State authorities\u201d, and Nema cannot therefore be charged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The civil parties tried to plead the Syrian regime\u2019s \u201ctacit\u201d or \u201cpassive\u201d acquiescence in the enforced disappearance of the \u201cDouma Four\u201d before the Court of Cassation, which rejected their appeal in February 2024. Nema is therefore on trial solely for complicity in war crimes for \u201cconscripting or enlisting minors in an armed conflict\u201d and for agreeing with the Jaysh al-Islam group \u201cto commit war crimes\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n According to a press release from the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor\u2019s Office (PNAT), 32 witnesses have been called to testify in this trial - 27 by the PNAT, and 2 experts.<\/p>\n\n\nNema\u2019s role in Jaysh al-Islam<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The two faces of the accused<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
A complaint filed in Paris in 2020<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The \u201cDouma Four\u201d <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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