French court to rule on Assad immunity in chemical attack case

France’s highest court is to decide Friday whether to uphold an arrest warrant against Syria’s ex-president Bashar al-Assad as part of a probe into deadly 2013 chemical attacks during the country’s civil war.

Rights activists say that if the Court of Cassation confirms Assad does not enjoy immunity due to the severity of the accusations, it could set a major precedent in international law towards holding war criminals to account.

But if the reasoning is that the warrant is valid because France…