French-Lebanese Citizen Files War Crimes Complaint Over Property Destruction in Lebanon

Lawyers representing a French-Lebanese citizen filed a formal complaint on Tuesday with France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office, alleging war crimes committed by Israel following the destruction of his property in southern Lebanon. The complainant, whose identity remains confidential, resides in France. According to his legal counsel, William Bourdon and Nicolas Busin from the firm Bourdon & Associes, his house and olive trees in southern Lebanon were demolished by Israel during the military conflict with Hezbollah.

Speaking at a conference on corruption and accountability in Beirut on Tuesday, Mr Busin stated, 'This is a French citizen asking the justice system of his own country to establish the full truth and deliver justice for what he says he has suffered, namely ethnic cleansing.' The event was organised by the reformist political party Lana and featured attendance from opposition MP Halima El Kaakour. Mr Busin emphasized that the complainant's family had no ties to Hezbollah, highlighting what he called 'the complete absence of any military objective' in the attack on the property, which he categorized as an act of destruction and a war crime aimed at uncovering the truth and prosecuting perpetrators.

Highlighting that more than 6,000 French citizens serve in the Israeli military, Mr Busin remarked, 'It is unacceptable for French nationals to commit war crimes in southern Lebanon.' This filing marks at least the third complaint submitted in France this year concerning alleged Israeli war crimes in Lebanon. Previous legal actions include an April filing in Paris by Ali Cherri, whose parents died in an Israeli strike ahead of the November 2024 ceasefire, and a June filing by a French-Lebanese man who lost family members in an April Israeli strike on a residential building in Tyre.

Because the complainants hold French citizenship, the French judiciary retains jurisdiction over these cases. Several dual-national Lebanese citizens have similarly pursued legal actions abroad due to a lack of accountability pathways within Lebanon, which is not a party to the Rome Statute and has not yet accepted International Criminal Court jurisdiction despite human rights appeals. Furthermore, Article 13 of the Israel-Lebanon framework agreement signed in June restricts parties from engaging in hostile or adverse actions in international legal forums, raising further concerns. However, Mr Busin noted that international proceedings could foster momentum for domestic accountability.

Meanwhile, Mr Bourdon has spearheaded multiple legal efforts regarding Lebanon, resulting in three separate investigations in France aimed at holding the nation's political and banking elite accountable following the 2019 financial collapse. Highlighting international corruption as an existential threat to democracy, Mr Bourdon noted previous anti-graft actions, including a 2014-2025 sequence of complaints by organizations like Sherpa and the Collective of Victims of Fraudulent and Criminal Practices in Lebanon (CVFCPL) against former Central Bank governor Riad Salameh, which led to frozen European assets and an international arrest warrant. Additional financial probes targeting former prime minister Najib Mikati, his family, and major banking groups such as SGBL Group and Bank Audi, alongside executives like Antoun Sehnaoui, continue to unfold under Paris financial prosecutors.