The trial of a former Salafist rebel, Majdi Nema, begins Tuesday in the Paris criminal court, where he will be tried for complicity in war crimes committed between 2013 and 2016 in Syria, under the principle of universal jurisdiction of French justice. The former member of Jaysh al-Islam (JAI, Army of Islam), now 36 years old, denies the accusations, claiming to have had only a "limited role" in the group, which advocates for Sharia law and which fought against the Syrian regime.

Nema, who has been detained since January 2020, will stand trial for complicity in war crimes and conspiracy to commit war crimes. He is also suspected of helping to recruit children and teenagers into the ranks of the 'Cubs of Islam' and training them for armed action. For these acts, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

"This case will be an opportunity to shed light on the complexity of the Syrian conflict, which was not limited to the regime's crimes," says Marc Bailly, lawyer for the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and several civil parties alongside attorney Clémence Bectarte.

This is the second trial to be held in France concerning crimes committed in Syria, following an initial trial held in absentia in May 2024 against senior members of the Syrian regime, convicted of the forced disappearance and death of two French-Syrians.

A former officer in the Syrian army, Majdi Nema defected in November 2012 to join Zahran Alloush, the founder and commander-in-chief of Liwa al-Islam, which became JAI in 2013. This group took control of eastern Ghouta, northeast of Damascus in 2011, and is now suspected of being involved in committing war crimes, particularly against the civilian population.

Known by his war name, Islam Alloush, Nema claims to have left eastern Ghouta at the end of May 2013 to go to Turkey, from where he acted as a spokesperson for JAI, which he argues proves he could not have committed the alleged crimes. He says he left the group in 2016.

In November 2019, he arrived in France to attend a series of conferences as a student at the Institute for Research on the Arab and Muslim World at Aix-Marseille University.

Disputed jurisdiction

While a complaint had been filed in France against JAI a few months earlier, Nema was arrested in January 2020 and indicted by a judge of the Paris tribunal's war crimes division.

At the end of the procedure, he was also referred to the assizes for complicity in forced disappearances. As a JAI member, he was implicated in the Dec. 9, 2013, abduction of four human rights activists, including Syrian lawyer and journalist Razan Zeitouneh, who have never been found.

However, the Paris Court of Appeal annulled these proceedings in November 2023 for procedural reasons, even though it stated in its ruling that "Jaysh al-Islam must be considered responsible for the disappearance" of the four activists. This was subsequently upheld by the Court of Cassation.

During the investigation, Majdi Nema's defense challenged the principle of the universal jurisdiction of French courts, which allows them to try foreigners for crimes against humanity or war crimes committed abroad against foreigners, but the Court of Cassation rejected its appeal.

For the defendant’s lawyers, Romain Ruiz and Raphaël Kempf, the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime in December 2024 opened up new prospects and raises the 'question of the legitimacy' of this trial.

In response, Mr Bailly said that "under the current circumstances, it is impossible to hold a trial in Syria for these crimes."

Moreover, the relationship between the group and the new Syrian authorities remains unclear.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, JAI had ties with the Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, led by Ahmad al-Chareh, now the interim president of the country. JAI may be operating under other names since the new government announced the dissolution of armed groups and their integration into the new army. The verdict is expected on May 27.