France tries Syrian Islamist rebel ex-spokesman on war crime charges

French authorities arrested Majdi Nema, now 36, in the southern city of Marseille in 2020, after he travelled to the country on a student exchange programme. He was detained and charged under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows states to prosecute suspects accused of serious crimes regardless of where they were committed. This is the first time that crimes committed in Syria's civil war have been tried in France under the universal jurisdiction. Nema -- better known by his nom-de-guerre...