In a move that surely had the 1951 treaty drafters feeling vindicated, Lebanon has handed over a former general from Bashar al-Assad's ousted regime to Syria - the first extradition of its kind since the government fell in December 2024.

Maj Gen Adel Issa, 67, is accused of a laundry list of crimes allegedly committed during the Syrian civil war, including intentional homicide, facilitating a felony, killing more than two people, and the ever-popular "torture leading to death and crimes of aggression with the aim of inciting civil war and sectarian fighting." The Syrian interior ministry helpfully noted that Issa led ground forces in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor until 2016.

Issa was detained on 8 August after visiting the Syrian embassy in Beirut to complete paperwork - a classic bureaucratic misstep - and was transferred into Syrian custody on Wednesday. He denied the charges during his arrest, as judicial officials told the BBC, because who wouldn't?

The handover follows pressure from Syria's new authorities, led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, on Lebanon to act against former security and military officials who fled across the border after Assad's fall. In January, Syria gave Lebanese officials a list of more than 200 former senior officers it wants prosecuted. Issa's case will now go before a referral judge in Damascus, who will decide whether it should proceed to a criminal court.

Since taking power, Sharaa's authorities have pursued cases against dozens of former officials. Earlier this month, a Damascus court sentenced Assad and his brother, Maher, to death in absentia over abuses committed during the civil war. They fled to Moscow when Sharaa's forces seized power. Their cousins, Waseem al-Assad and Atif Najib, have been arrested in Syria and also sentenced to death.

So, one down, a few hundred to go. Justice may be slow, but it's apparently still faster than the 1951 extradition agreement's paperwork.