Syria | Court convicts Bashar al-Assad, sentences him to death

DAMASCUS, Syria (DPN)— A Syrian court on Tuesday sentenced former President Bashar Assad and his younger brother, Maher Assad, to death in absentia for premeditated murder of multiple people including children; torture; arbitrary detention, and crimes against humanity committed during Syria’s conflict.

The Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus also sentenced Atef Najib, Assad’s maternal cousin and former head of Political Security in the southern province of Daraa, to death. Najib appeared in court wearing a prisoner’s uniform and standing inside a cage as the judge read the sentence. The court ordered that Bashar and Maher Assad be pursued internationally.

Bashar and Maher Assad fled to Russia after insurgents entered Damascus and toppled the government in December 2024. Najib was later detained by Syrian authorities and became one of the highest-ranking former Assad officials to face trial.

The verdicts mark a major step in efforts by Syria’s post-Assad authorities to prosecute alleged abuses committed during the uprising and civil war that began in 2011. Syrian state news agency SANA reported that the court, citing investigations and witness testimony, convicted Bashar Assad as the highest decision-maker who directed state agencies in the crimes and imposed the death penalty. Similar findings underpinned the sentences against Maher Assad and Najib.

Najib, a former Syrian army brigadier general, headed the Political Security Branch in Daraa in 2011. His handling of protests in the province, including the detention and abuse of children accused of writing anti-government slogans, became one of the early flashpoints of the uprising against Assad. The crackdown in Daraa helped fuel protests that spread across Syria and eventually developed into a full-scale civil war.

The trial was presided over by Judge Fakhr al-Din al-Aryan, a former judicial adviser in Idlib who defected from the Assad government in March 2013. Al-Aryan publicly denounced the regime’s treatment of civilians and was subsequently sentenced to death in absentia by the former government. After Assad’s fall, he was reinstated to the judiciary and appointed to the court handling early transitional-justice cases.

The proceedings are among the most significant attempts by Syria’s new authorities to hold senior figures of the former regime accountable for abuses committed during the conflict. The war killed roughly half a million people and displaced millions more.

A career in crime

Bashar Hafez Assad, born in 1965, trained as an ophthalmologist in London and was not initially expected to succeed his father, Hafez Assad. That changed after the 1994 death of his older brother Bassel, who had been groomed to inherit the presidency. Bashar succeeded his father after Hafez Assad died in 2000, ending three decades of rule by the elder Assad.

Early hopes that the younger Assad would introduce political reforms soon faded. Economic reforms enriched regime-connected elites while political repression continued. When peaceful protests erupted in March 2011 as part of the Arab Spring, government forces responded with mass arrests and lethal force. The crackdown escalated into a civil war involving rebel groups, extremist organizations, and foreign powers.

During the conflict, forces loyal to Assad were accused of widespread killings, arbitrary detention, and systematic torture. The government also used barrel bombs against civilian areas and imposed sieges that restricted food and other supplies to opposition-held communities. The Saydnaya military prison became notorious for torture and mass executions.

Syrian government forces were also accused of using chemical weapons. The most notorious attack came in August 2013, when sarin gas was used in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta, killing hundreds of people. Assad denied responsibility and blamed rebel forces, but U.N. investigators and Western governments attributed the attack to Syrian government forces.

With military and political backing from Russia and Iran, as well as support from Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Assad regained control of most of Syria by the late 2010s. But large areas remained outside government control while the economy deteriorated under war, corruption, and international sanctions.

His government ultimately collapsed in a rapid rebel offensive in December 2024. Assad and Maher fled to Russia, where Bashar was granted refuge.

The death sentences cannot currently be carried out against Bashar or Maher Assad because they remain outside Syria. Najib remains in Syrian custody.

The verdicts come as Syria attempts to rebuild a judicial system that operated for decades under authoritarian rule. Human rights organizations and victims’ groups have called for accountability for abuses committed during the conflict, while also stressing the need for fair trials and due process. Many senior figures of the former regime remain outside the reach of Syria’s courts.

Source: DPN, AI, News outlets, August 11, 2026

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde

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