PARIS- Magdy Nehmeh, former spokesman for the Syrian rebel group Jaish al-Islam, told a French court Monday that he had tried, and failed, to report his faction’s recruitment of child soldiers to Turkish authorities.
Testifying at his war crimes trial in Paris, Nehmeh, also known as Islam Alloush, said he spent a year and a half gathering evidence against the group while in Turkey, where he also attempted to launch legal action.
Nehmeh claimed that he informed the Turkish authorities about Jaish al-Islam’s use of minors in combat operations, according to SwissInfo, adding that the effort was ultimately blocked by Turkish officials.
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Nehmeh is being prosecuted in France for complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity between 2013 and 2016, including the forced recruitment of child fighters. He entered France in late 2019 on a student exchange program and was arrested in Marseille in January 2020.
In February 2024, France’s Court of Cassation dismissed a separate charge against Nehmeh related to the 2013 kidnapping of four Syrian rights activists, citing lack of direct evidence tying him to the crime.
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Once a dominant faction in Eastern Ghouta, Jaish al-Islam has been accused of various human rights abuses throughout Syria’s civil war. Nehmeh’s trial is one of the most prominent legal efforts in Europe to hold former Syrian rebel leaders accountable under universal jurisdiction.
