US and Lebanon shielding fugitive Syrian general wanted over Assad-era atrocities, BBC investigation alleges

A former Syrian military commander who once ran the Assad regime's chemical weapons programme is receiving protection and financial support from US and Lebanese authorities while evading justice for crimes against humanity, according to a joint BBC News and NPR investigation.

Bassam al-Hassan served as a senior adviser to former President Bashar al-Assad and is accused of playing a central role in the government's use of chemical weapons against its own people. He has been living in Lebanon since the collapse of the Assad regime in late 2024, and the reporting suggests his presence there is sustained by an informal understanding involving the FBI and other American and Lebanese officials.

At the heart of the arrangement is the case of Austin Tice, an American journalist abducted in Syria in 2012 whose fate has remained one of the most sensitive unresolved questions in US Middle East policy. Investigators were told that Hassan has been permitted to stay in Lebanon largely because he has been willing to share information about Tice's disappearance, along with other intelligence of value to Washington.

The reporting builds on earlier BBC work published last month, which concluded that Tice's kidnapping was not a random act of violence but a planned operation, with Hassan sitting in the chain of command that carried it out. That finding sharpened the moral stakes of any deal that appears to insulate him from prosecution.

The BBC said it has reviewed a detailed record of a meeting attended by Hassan, representatives of the FBI and CIA, and Lebanese security officials, at which Tice's case featured prominently. In that session, Hassan was reportedly offered residency, protection and assistance with his living expenses in exchange for information, primarily about the missing journalist.

Sources familiar with the terms confirmed that account and described how money reaches Hassan from US authorities via an intermediary — a structure that, they said, makes the flows harder to trace. The significance is heightened by the fact that Hassan is himself subject to US government sanctions.

Yet those connected to the Tice investigation say they have seen little sign that it has materially advanced since Hassan began cooperating under the deal, which is believed to have been struck in the spring of 2025. There are concerns, the BBC reported, that the arrangement could drag on indefinitely, costing money while delivering limited returns.

Hassan is not the only former regime figure apparently benefiting from a link to the Tice case. One ex-regime member said the FBI had paid him repeatedly for his cooperation, and admitted he had an incentive to withhold information rather than share everything at once, in order to keep the payments flowing. Another said he was living in Lebanon under American "patronage" and used that as his reason for declining to discuss Tice.

A former senior Lebanese intelligence official corroborated the broad pattern, telling the BBC that Lebanese intelligence does maintain arrangements with the Americans and that payments of this kind have occurred, and do occur, where the two agencies' cases overlap. He added, however, that he had no knowledge of any payments specifically tied to the Tice investigation.

Officials from two branches of Syria's new government told the BBC they want Hassan extradited to face trial at home. But they conceded that US authorities want him kept in Lebanon, and that Damascus has limited ability to change that — an acknowledgement of how much leverage Washington still exercises in the region.

The BBC approached the FBI, the CIA and Lebanon's General Directorate of General Security for comment. Only the FBI responded, declining to discuss the findings and instead referring to a previous statement emphasising that its focus remains on establishing the facts surrounding Tice's disappearance and securing his return.

The Tice family reacted with anger. Phil Elwood, a spokesperson for the family, said that if the reporting proved accurate, it would be offensive that US taxpayers were effectively funding a comfortable existence for someone linked to chemical attacks on Syrian civilians — particularly someone said to have claimed that Tice was executed. He called it nothing short of aiding and abetting a wanted war criminal, and said Syrians deserved justice and Hassan should be returned for trial.

According to the investigation, Hassan initially fled to Iran after the Assad regime fell in early December 2024. A Syrian businessman with connections to both the former regime and Lebanese authorities said negotiations then took place involving the US, Lebanon and Iran to move him into Lebanon.

The businessman, who asked not to be named, said Hassan's value lay not only in what he is believed to know about Tice but in his broader knowledge of how the former regime operated — a reminder of how intelligence, impunity and geopolitics can intertwine.

The claims are explored in a new BBC podcast series examining the Tice case, and they raise difficult questions for Washington: how far a democracy should go in cutting deals with figures implicated in atrocities, and whether such bargains ultimately deliver answers or simply delay accountability.