Swiss refer Syrian president’s uncle to trial for alleged war crimes

Rifaat Assad poses for a photographer in Paris (Michel Euler/AP)

Swiss prosecutors said they have indicted former Syrian vice president Rifaat Assad, the uncle of the war-battered country’s current president, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for allegedly ordering murder and torture more than four decades ago.

The attorney general’s office said Assad, 86, is accused of directing the crimes in Syria in February 1982 while serving as commander of defence brigades that carried out an attack in the city of Hama during a conflict between the military and the Islamist opposition.