Ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad Sentenced To D£ath Over War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity

 

Ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad Sentenced To Death Over War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity

His cousin, Atef Najib, former head of political security in the southern province of Deraa, was also sentenced to death.

ASyrian court has sentenced ousted former president Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia, convicting him of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the country’s civil war, the BBC reports.

It is the first conviction secured against Assad, who fled to Moscow with his family after his regime collapsed in December 2024, bringing an end to more than five decades of his family’s rule over Syria.

His cousin, Atef Najib, former head of political security in the southern province of Deraa, was also sentenced to death.

Najib appeared in court in a striped prison uniform, held inside a cage, as the judge delivered the ruling. He was convicted on charges including murder, “the intentional killing of children under 15,” and torture leading to death.

Deraa is widely considered the birthplace of the uprising against Assad’s rule. In March 2011, the detention and alleged torture of teenagers accused of writing anti-government graffiti triggered protests in the city.

A violent security crackdown on the demonstrations helped ignite nationwide unrest that escalated into a civil war in which hundreds of thousands of people were killed.

Syria’s interim government began prosecuting former regime officials earlier this year, with Najib among the highest-ranking to stand trial.

The same court sentenced six other former military and security officials to death in absentia, including Assad’s younger brother, Maher al-Assad, who commanded the army’s elite Fourth Division and also fled to Moscow after the regime’s fall.

Former defence minister Fahd al-Freij was among those convicted alongside him.

Outside the courthouse after Tuesday’s ruling, hundreds gathered holding photographs of relatives killed under Assad’s rule, clapping, chanting and distributing Syrian flags as motorists honked in celebration.

“The joy is indescribable,” a man told the BBC while holding a photograph of his late father.

Another woman said people were experiencing a mixture of “victory and liberation,” adding: “The voices of the victims are finally heard. Justice has been achieved!”

Nouha al-Masri, a prosecutor in the case who lost her brother in the March 2011 crackdown at Deraa’s al-Omari Square, said: “We have been waiting for 15 years to reclaim even a small part of our rights, for all those who have spilled our blood, committed crimes, violated our rights, killed, and tortured us.”

She added: “Our demand is that this not be the end of the trials… In the new Syria, there will be no impunity from this day forward.”

It remains unclear whether Syria’s new authorities will succeed in securing the extradition of Bashar and Maher al-Assad from Russia.

The new leadership had already issued an arrest warrant for Assad in December on charges including murder and torture.

Assad fled the country as forces led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, now Syria’s president, seized power in an 11-day offensive that ended the Assad family’s rule.

Since then, the new government has detained numerous former officials and security personnel, though most senior figures from the old regime, including Assad himself, remain in Russia.

Earlier attempts by Syrian opposition figures to prosecute him through Western courts during his final years in power did not result in convictions.

Assad became president in 2000 following the death of his father, Hafez al-Assad, who had ruled Syria for nearly three decades.

He was not initially expected to succeed his father but became heir after his older brother, Basil, died in a car crash in 1994.

A member of Syria’s Alawite minority, Assad maintained the group’s dominance across the military, security and intelligence services throughout his rule.