A court in Syria has sentenced Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia
A Syrian court has sentenced ousted President Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia, finding him guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the country’s civil war, according to BBC News.
This is the first conviction against Assad, who fled Damascus with his family to Moscow after his regime was overthrown in December 2024. The fall of Assad’s regime brought an end to his family’s more than 50-year rule in Syria.
Assad’s cousin, Atef Najib—the former head of political security in the southern province of Daraa—was also sentenced to death. Najib was present at the court hearing and appeared before the court in a striped prison uniform inside a cage.
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Najib was found guilty, in particular, of murder, the intentional killing of children under the age of 15, and torture resulting in death. The court sentenced six other former military and security officials to death in absentia. Among them are former President Maher Assad’s younger brother, who commanded the Syrian Army’s elite Fourth Division and also fled to Moscow, as well as former Defense Minister Fahd al-Freij.
Deraa is considered the birthplace of the uprising against the Assad regime. In March 2011, the detention and alleged torture of teenagers accused of painting anti-government graffiti sparked protests in the city. Security forces brutally suppressed the demonstrations, after which the protests spread across the country and escalated into a civil war that has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.
Syria’s transitional government began putting officials of the Assad regime on trial earlier this year. The new government had previously issued an arrest warrant for Bashar al-Assad on charges of murder and torture. At the same time, it remains unclear whether Syrian authorities will be able to secure the extradition of Bashar and Maher al-Assad from Moscow.
