Former Syrian Air Force Colonel Charged with Crimes Against Humanity Found Unfit for Trial in UK

Syrian Colonel Cannot Stand Trial. The Case Against Him Will Proceed Anyway.

Salem Michel Al-Salem — a former colonel in Syria's Air Force Intelligence service — appeared at London's Old Bailey via video link on oxygen, paralyzed in all four limbs, barely able to speak. Justice Cheema-Grubb ruled him unfit to stand trial after four medical experts presented what the court described as a "unified" opinion on the severity of his condition.

According to BBC News, Al-Salem, 58, faces three counts of murder as a crime against humanity, three counts of torture, and one charge of conduct ancillary to murder. The alleged acts took place in Damascus between 2011 and 2012, during the early and most violent phase of the Syrian civil war.

Defence counsel Patrick Gibb KC told the court that Al-Salem's motor neurone disease has progressed to the point where he is paralyzed and cannot communicate. Prosecutor Tom Little KC, citing a consultant neuropsychologist, described Al-Salem as "monosyllabic and only really understandable to close family." The Crown accepted the unfitness ruling without objection.

What He Is Accused Of

According to BBC News, the charges relate specifically to events in April and July 2011 in Jobar, a village near Damascus. Al-Salem is alleged to have been involved in the deaths of Omar Al-Homsi, Nizar Fayoumi-AlKhatib, Mohammed Salim Zahrak Balik, and Talhat Dalal, who were among the civilian protesters targeted during the early uprising against then-President Bashar al-Assad.

The Crown Prosecution Service alleges Al-Salem was "part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population" and led a group of militants attempting to crush demonstrations. He also faces torture allegations covering three individuals between August 2011 and March 2012, carried out "in the performance or purported performance of his official duties."

Al-Salem was arrested in December 2021 and held on conditional bail. The charges were formally announced following a four-year investigation by Counter Terrorism Policing's war crimes unit, according to BBC News. He was served written notice of the allegations rather than being arraigned in the conventional sense.

Historic Case, Unusual Outcome

The Crown Prosecution Service confirmed this is the first time the UK has brought charges of murder as a crime against humanity under the International Criminal Court Act 2001. BBC News also notes it appears to be the first prosecution in the UK of anyone alleged to have been part of Assad's security apparatus for conduct during the Syrian civil war.

Justice Cheema-Grubb ordered that not-guilty pleas be formally entered on Al-Salem's behalf. That procedural step allows a "trial of the facts" to proceed — a hearing where the court determines whether Al-Salem carried out the acts he is accused of, even though he cannot participate, mount a defense, or be convicted in the traditional sense. That trial is scheduled for 2027.

The Fairness Question

There is a legitimate concern: holding any version of a trial against someone who cannot communicate, cannot instruct counsel, and cannot confront witnesses raises genuine due-process questions. A defendant who cannot speak for himself cannot be cross-examined, cannot correct misidentifications, and cannot challenge evidence in real time. Critics of "trial of the facts" proceedings argue they risk being closer to a public verdict than a genuine adversarial proceeding, and that the stigma of findings against an incapacitated defendant may be irreversible even if the process is technically correct.

The alleged victims — protesters shot in 2011 — have no less claim to a factual accounting of what happened to them simply because the man accused of ordering it is now dying. UK law provides the trial-of-the-facts mechanism precisely for situations where a finding of guilt is not possible but a finding of fact still serves the interests of justice. The Crown Prosecution Service and Justice Cheema-Grubb are operating within that framework.

What Happens Next

Al-Salem remains on conditional bail as of July 3, 2026. The 2027 trial of the facts will determine whether the court finds he committed the alleged acts, but even an affirmative finding carries no criminal sentence. The practical consequence of this proceeding is primarily historical and symbolic: a formal judicial record of what a British court determined a former Assad intelligence officer did to Syrian civilians during the uprising's earliest days.

Whether that record carries enough weight to deter other foreign nationals with similar histories who may be living in the UK is the question no one in the proceeding has answered yet.