Swedish Suit Says Strongman Savagely Struck Syrians With Sarin

Syrian dictator Bashar Assad was sued on Tuesday for using chemical weapons against his own countrymen during Syria’s long-running civil war. Four NGOs in Sweden filed the criminal complaint against the Russian-backed strongman and his Damascus cohorts, expressing hope that an “investigation into these crimes will eventually result in trials and convictions of those who ordered and carried out” the attacks. Swedish police can investigate allegations of war crimes regardless of where they are committed. The suit alleges that Assad’s government authorized the use of sarin and chlorine gas in two separate attacks on opposition-held towns in 2013 and 2017 – incidents that claimed the lives of hundreds and were investigated and verified by the United Nations. Syria has repeatedly rejected all claims of illegal use of chemical weapons, saying the allegations were a political attack by the Western world. Hundreds of thousands have died in the bloody Syrian war, with close to 13 million either internally displaced or becoming refugees in other countries.