Syrian court sentences Bashar al-Assad and brother to death in absentia for war crimes
A Syrian court sentenced ousted President Bashar al-Assad and his younger brother Maher to death in absentia on Tuesday for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during Syria's 14-year conflict, which left approximately half a million people dead. The verdicts, handed down by the Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus, are the first against Assad or members of his inner circle since the Assad family's five decades in power ended 20 months ago. Assad's maternal cousin Atef Najib was also sentenced to death in the same case.
Judge Fakhareddine al-Aryan, presiding over a session aired live on Syrian state television, stated: "Bashar Assad used state agencies to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity." Najib, present in court amid tight security, stood inside a cage in a prisoner's uniform as the sentence was read aloud, while a crowd gathered outside the courthouse in central Damascus.
Najib, a former Syrian army brigadier general, served as head of the Political Security Branch in Daraa province under Assad in 2011. He was convicted of overseeing a crackdown in the southern province of Daraa that set off the uprising and ultimately the civil war. The U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned Najib in April 2011, and he is described by all three outlets as one of the highest-ranking officials to be put on trial since the Assad government fell.
The Daraa crackdown began after more than a dozen teenagers who had scrawled anti-government graffiti on a school wall were arrested and tortured under Najib's watch. That episode became a catalyst for mass protests against Assad's security forces, protests that were met with a government crackdown and spiraled into a 14-year civil war ending with Assad's ouster in a rebel offensive in December 2024.