Syria’s interior ministry has announced the arrest of Major General Adnan Abboud Hilweh, a former commander in the ousted Assad regime accused of orchestrating the 2013 chemical weapons attack on the Damascus suburb of Ghouta. The detention marks one of the most significant steps yet by the post-Assad authorities in pursuing accountability for atrocities committed during the civil war. US intelligence estimates that more than a thousand people were killed by sarin nerve gas in the assault, which struck eastern Ghouta in August 2013; the attack was later attributed to forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad, who was toppled in December 2024. Viewed from Washington, the arrest is a signal that the new leadership under Ahmed al-Sharaa is willing to confront the legacy of the previous regime, though analysts in London caution that such moves remain selective and may serve broader political objectives rather than comprehensive justice.

The Hilweh case is not unfolding in isolation. In recent days, the interior ministry also released audio recordings in which former Syrian air force pilots confessed to having conducted bombing raids on rebel-held cities on the direct orders of Assad and his defence minister. One pilot, Mizzer Abd Sawwan, who was known as “the enemy of the two Ghoutas,” admitted to targeting the eastern and western suburbs during the height of the conflict. These confessions, obtained months after the pilots were captured, provide rare insider testimony that implicates the former head of state in war crimes. Meanwhile, in a Damascus courtroom, Atef Najib — a cousin of the deposed dictator — appeared in an iron cage to face charges of torture and murder, marking the first time a senior Assad-era official has been publicly tried since the regime fell. For many Syrians, the sight of Najib in striped prison garb was a cathartic moment, but international observers note that the trials are being conducted by a government that is itself accused of human rights abuses.

The trajectory of transitional justice in Syria remains fraught. From the perspective of regional capitals, the arrest of Hilweh and the Najib trial are welcome first steps, yet they raise difficult questions about selectivity. The new authorities have shown little appetite for investigating abuses committed by their own allies or by former rebel factions now integrated into the state. Analysts in Brussels argue that without a broader, independent mechanism — backed by the United Nations — the process risks becoming a tool for political score-settling rather than a genuine reckoning. For the thousands of families still seeking answers after a decade of war, the coming months will test whether Syria’s new rulers can turn symbolic prosecutions into a sustained campaign against impunity. The Ghouta survivors, who watched Hilweh’s arrest with a mixture of hope and scepticism, know better than most that accountability is a marathon, not a sprint.