DAMASCUS - Syria has asked the French bureau of Interpol to hand over a former vice president who defected to France from Syria last year so that he can face questioning on corruption charges, a prosecutor said on Sunday. The summons demands that Abdul-Halim Khaddam be transferred to Syria to appear before a court on a number of charges, including ”instigating a foreign country to launch an attack against Syria.”
| A grave crime in any totalitarian state. |
Attorney Hossam Al Deen Habash told Deutsche Presse-Agentur that if the French do not heed the Syrian call, Khaddam would be tried in absentia.
| And then they'll find a way to carry the sentence out in absentia. |
He, however, expressed hopes that France, “which is a school in the national law worldwide and is an example for its respect of international justice and for its refusal to harbour wanted persons on its lands,” would respond positively.
| Translation: they're pretty confident, knowing the lack of morals in France, that they can get their man. |
A top member of SyriaÂ’s ruling elite for nearly 30 years, Khaddam, 73, provoked an outcry in December when he told a pan-Arab satellite channel that Syrian President Bashar Assad had threatened former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri months before Hariri was assassinated last year. Assad has denied the allegation. |