Source: AP
A Syrian court sentenced ousted President Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia Tuesday for crimes committed during the country’s devastating 14-year conflict.
His younger brother, Maher al-Assad, was also handed a death sentence in absentia. Both men fled to Russia after opposition forces entered Damascus and brought the Assad family’s decades-long rule to an end in December 2024.
Unlike the Assad brothers, their maternal cousin Atef Najib was present in court to hear his death sentence. Amid tight security, the former senior security official stood inside a cage wearing a prisoner’s uniform as the judge delivered the verdict.
The court convicted the men over crimes including murder, torture, and arbitrary detention. Syria’s conflict left roughly half a million people dead and forced millions more from their homes.
Najib played a central role in the events that sparked the uprising in 2011. At the time, he was a brigadier general and headed the Political Security Branch in the southern province of Daraa.
His forces led the crackdown on anti-government protests there, helping turn local unrest into a nationwide uprising and, eventually, a brutal civil war.
Najib was detained after Assad’s government collapsed, making him one of the most senior members of the former regime to be arrested and brought before a Syrian court.
The ruling marks one of Syria’s most significant attempts to hold senior figures from the Assad era responsible for abuses committed during the war. However, the sentences against Bashar and Maher al-Assad cannot be enforced while they remain outside the country.
