The ruling against Assad is the first under the transitional authorities who this year began trying figures from the former government, both in person and in absentia.
Damascus:
Syria’s ex-president Bashar Al-Assad has been sentenced to death in absentia by a Syrian court following a conviction over charges related to “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” during Syria’s 14-year conflict that left about half a million people dead. His younger brother Maher Al-Assad, a former leader in the Syrian military, has also been awarded the death sentence.
Also sentenced to death in the same case was Assad’s maternal cousin Atef Najib– a former Syrian army brigadier general who was head of the Political Security Branch in southern Syria’s Daraa province under Assad in 2011– for leading the crackdown in the southern province of Daraa that led to the uprising and later the civil war.
The court ruled that Najib carried out “the intentional killing of children under 15” and “torture leading to death.” The acts attributed to him are “crimes against humanity,” the court said as it handed down “the harshest punishment against him, which is the death penalty.”
The Tyrannical Rule
The former ruler fled Syria with his family members, including his brother, to Moscow as Islamist-led forces closed in on Damascus in December 2024. After the Asaad empire toppled, Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former Al-Qaeda commander once branded a terrorist by Washington, formed the new government in Syria.
Najib, who stayed behind, was later detained and became one of the highest-ranking officials to be put on trial.
The ruling against Assad and his family members is the first under the transitional authorities who this year began trying figures from the former government, both in person and in absentia.
For over 50 years, Syria was ruled by Hafez Assad and then his son, Bashar Al-Assad. During the Arab Spring, rebellion broke out against their tyrannical rule in 2011 across the country of 23 million, igniting a brutal 13-year civil war that killed more than half a million people, according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights.
Millions more fled to Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, and Europe. The Assad dynasty manipulated sectarian tensions to stay in power, a legacy driving renewed violence in Syria against minority groups despite promises that the country’s new leaders will carve out a political future for Syria that includes and represents all its communities.
