A former Syrian general wanted for crimes against humanity , external is being bankrolled and protected by the US and Lebanese authorities, a BBC News investigation has found. Bassam al-Hassan, who oversaw Syria's chemical weapons programme and was a senior adviser to former President Bashar al-Assad, is being harboured in Lebanon following the Assad regime's collapse in 2024. An investigation by the BBC and the US broadcaster NPR has discovered that Hassan has been allowed to remain there under an arrangement involving the FBI, and other US and Lebanese authorities. This is because of his willingness to provide information about the abduction of American journalist Austin Tice in Syria in 2012, as well as additional intelligence, we have been told.
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