Lebanon’s judicial authorities have decided to hand over a former senior Syrian military officer under ousted President Bashar Assad to Damascus after questioning him over crimes he allegedly committed during the country’s conflict, officials said Tuesday (August 18, 2026).
The decision comes days after a vote in Parliament that made Lebanon the first Arab country to abolish the death penalty, a step that will become formal once it is published in the Lebanese Official Gazette. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. The judicial officials said Issa is being handed over to Syria in accordance with a 1951 agreement between the countries that calls for handing over suspected criminals. On Tuesday (August 18, 2026) afternoon, Issa was taken by members of Lebanon’s General Security Directorate, who will drive him to a border crossing and hand him over to Syrian authorities, two judicial and two security officials said. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said that after commanding the Syrian army’s 17th Division, Issa was moved in 2015 to command ground forces in Deir el-Zour that borders Iraq, and that he retired in late 2016. Syria’s conflict, which began with anti-government protests in March 2011 before turning into a civil war, left half a million people dead and over 1 million wounded.
The Syrian embassy in Beirut sent Issa’s charge sheet to Lebanese judicial authorities earlier this month, the officials said. Issa had fled to Lebanon by crossing illegally after Assad’s fall, the officials said.
