French investigating magistrates have issued an arrest warrant against ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad for suspected complicity in war crimes, notably the launch of a deliberate attack on civilians, a legal source said late on Tuesday.

The mandate was issued on Jan. 20 as part of an investigation into the case of Salah Abou Nabour, a Franco-Syrian national, who was killed on June 7, 2017 in a bombing raid in Syria.

This is the second arrest warrant issued by French judges, for the former Syrian leader, who was overthrown in early December 2024 by insurgent forces led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

In November 2023, French judges had issued a first warrant against Bashar al-Assad on charges of complicity in crimes against humanity and complicity in war crimes.

It followed a French investigation into chemical attacks in Douma and the district of Eastern Ghouta in August 2013 that killed more than 1,000 people.

Assad’s government has in the past denied using chemical weapons against its opponents in the civil war, which broke out in March 2011.