When protests broke out in 2011, and Syrian troops started killing demonstrators, the woman nicknamed the “desert rose” on a Vogue front cover eschewed several offers to flee Damascus with her children and staunchly supported the government’s brutal response to the uprising.

Legal filings submitted by Guernica 37 International Justice Chambers quote speeches in which Assad lauds the mothers of slain Syrian soldiers and cite footage of her warmly greeting female troops. They point to interviews where she claims to be supporting her husband out of personal conviction and glorified soldiers for defending the homeland.

“The evidence compiled, in our view, legally speaking, far exceeds what may be considered reasonable comment or mere propaganda and amount to the incitement, encourage and/or aiding and abetting of war crimes and crimes against humanity,” said Toby Cadman, the joint head of chambers at Guernica 37.

“Due to the fact that the investigation is ongoing and not wishing to affect the integrity of the process and respecting the duty to afford the first lady a fair trial once charged, it would not be appropriate to comment on specific evidence save to confirm that it comes from a number of sources and in our view is sufficiently strong to justify the bringing of criminal charges.”

The complaints allege that since the death of Bashar al-Assad’s mother in 2016, his wife has amassed growing political clout in the shattered country, which is largely pacified but in the grip of a dire economic crisis.

Assad was treated for breast cancer in 2018 and recovered and announced last week that she and her husband had contracted mild Covid-19. The US levelled sanctions against her in 2020 claiming she, her parents and brothers had become some of Syria’s “most notorious war profiteers”.

The Met has been contacted for comment.