Syria launches its first public trial over deadly clashes in March, during which pro-government fighters killed hundreds of members of the Alawite minority in their coastal homeland. The case is widely seen as a test of President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s promise of accountability.
By Linda Bordoni
Syrian state media reported that 14 defendants appeared at the Palace of Justice in Aleppo on Tuesday following a months-long, state-led investigation into the clashes in March involving government forces and supporters of the ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Seven of the suspects in the court were reportedly al-Assad loyalists, while the other seven were members of the new government’s security forces.
The bloodshed marked one of the worst eruptions of violence since Sunni Islamist rebels led by Sharaa toppled Assad, a member of the Alawite minority, in December, ending 54 years of autocratic rule by the Assad family.
The defendants are facing charges that include fomenting civil war, secession, premeditated murder and looting. They were all reportedly questioned on charges of killing civilians and forming militias that carried out attacks on army checkpoints and government installations.
A Reuters investigation and a government report found that Syrian forces killed nearly 1,500 Syrian Alawites between 7 and 9 March. The attacks came in response to a day-old rebellion organised by former officers loyal to Assad that allegedly killed 200 members of the security forces.
Officials say the authorities are committed to accountability in a new era that ends a dark phase of secretive authoritarian rule, noting it was previously unheard of in Syria to put members of the security forces on trial for crimes.
President Sharaa denounced the violence as a threat to his mission to unite Syria and pledged to hold those responsible to account.
(Source: AP and other agencies)