A new international arrest warrant has been issued against Bashar al-Assad on charges of carrying out deadly chemical attacks in 2013, adding to two previous warrants issued by the French judiciary against the former Syrian president, a judicial source told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Thursday.

Judges in Paris signed this new warrant on July 29 on charges of complicity in crimes against humanity and complicity in war crimes — just days after the French judiciary annulled an earlier warrant in the same case.

On the same day, France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office, which handles crimes against humanity, requested that a new warrant be issued.

The Court of Cassation, France’s highest court, had annulled the first warrant on July 25, 2024, which had been issued in November 2023, citing the absolute immunity granted to a sitting head of state — as Assad was still in power at the time.

However, the high court clarified that new warrants could now be issued, since Assad was deposed on December 8, 2024.

The chemical attacks attributed to the Syrian regime were carried out on August 5, 2013, in Adra and Douma, injuring 450 people, and then on August 21 in Eastern Ghouta, killing more than 1,000 people with sarin gas, according to U.S. intelligence.