France asks Lebanon to detain senior Syrian generals over French citizen death

France has asked Lebanon to detain and extradite three senior generals from the regime of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over their alleged involvement in the deaths of French citizens.

A senior Lebanese judicial source told Asharq Al-Awsat that Lebanon’s Public Prosecutor, Judge Jamal al-Hajjar, received an official request from the French judiciary containing a judicial warrant, Caliber.Az reports.

The document called on Lebanon to “track down Air Force Intelligence chief General Jamil al-Hassan, head of the National Security Bureau General Ali Mamlouk, and head of the Air Force Intelligence Investigations Branch General Abdel-Salam Mahmoud, conduct inquiries, and arrest them if found in Lebanon, then hand them over to French authorities.”

The French request notably included “Lebanese phone numbers that maintain regular contact with the named individuals, as confirmed by French authorities through monitoring of communications linked to the pursuit of senior Assad regime figures,” according to the judicial source.

The information is considered crucial to the ongoing investigative work of the Information Branch within Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces.

French judicial authorities have increasingly pursued key members of the former Syrian regime for accountability in crimes committed during the civil war, issuing arrest warrants against Assad and several top intelligence and military officials for war crimes and crimes against humanity.  

In September 2025, France targeted a group of seven senior officials—including Assad himself—for their alleged involvement in the 2012 bombing of a press centre in Homs, which killed two international journalists. 

The investigation extends beyond France’s borders: in 2019, Germany had requested Lebanon’s assistance in extraditing Syrian general Jamil al‑Hassan, who was accused of human rights violations, demonstrating Lebanon’s pivotal role as a possible transit or refuge point for senior Syrian regime figures.

By Jeyhun Aghazada