Supporters of Issam Buwaydani, the head of Jaish al-Islam, a group that fought against former president Bashar al-Assad, hold his portrait during a demonstration calling for his release at Ummayad Square in the Syrian capital Damascus on April 28, 2025. (Credit: Bakr al Kasem/AFP)
A former spokesman for a Syrian Islamist rebel group, on trial in France over alleged crimes during Syria's civil war, sought to present himself as a "whistleblower" on Monday.
Majdi Nema – also known by the nom-de-guerre Islam Alloush – has been charged with complicity in war crimes between 2013 and 2016, when he was spokesperson for the Jaish al-Islam (JAI) group.
The 36-year-old, who faces up to 20 years in jail if found guilty, has been accused of helping recruit children and teenagers to fight for the group.
On Monday, he surprised judges and defense lawyers at a Paris court by presenting himself as a "whistleblower."
He said he had wanted to report the recruitment of minors after he left the group and that he and others had been preparing a case against JAI for war crimes from Turkey, where he said he was based when working as their spokesperson.
"I worked on this case for a year and a half, and unfortunately, Turkey refused" to launch legal action, he said.
Defense lawyer Marc Bailly challenged his claim, citing old statements from Nema in which he said he would always be "loyal" to JAI.
Nema travelled to France in late 2019 under a university exchange programme and was arrested in the southern city of Marseille in January 2020.
France has, since 2010, been able to try cases under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows states to prosecute suspects accused of serious crimes regardless of where they were committed.
Syria's conflict killed more than half a million people and displaced millions more from their homes after it erupted in 2011 with a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests.
