{"id":244827,"date":"2026-08-11T13:07:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T13:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/244827\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T13:07:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T13:07:10","slug":"former-syrian-president-assad-sentenced-to-death-in-absentia-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/244827\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Syrian President Assad sentenced to death in absentia"},"content":{"rendered":"

DAMASCUS, Syria — A Syrian court sentenced ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad along with his younger brother to death in absentia on Tuesday for crimes against humanity and war crimes during Syria\u2019s 14-year conflict that left about half a million people dead.<\/p>\n

The sentences at the Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus are the first against Assad or members of his inner circle since the Assad family’s five decades<\/a> in power came to an end 20 months ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cBashar Assad used state agencies to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity,\u201d said judge Fakhareddine al-Aryan during a court session that was aired live on state TV. <\/p>\n

Also sentenced to death was Assad\u2019s maternal cousin Atef Najib<\/a>, who was convicted of overseeing a crackdown in the southern province of Daraa that led to the uprising and later the civil war. Al-Aryan said Najib can appeal. <\/p>\n

Under tight security, Najib stood inside a cage wearing a prisoner\u2019s uniform as the judge read the sentence. A crowd gathered outside the courthouse in central Damascus to hear the verdict.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday is the day of justice for all the wounded, martyrs, detainees and Syrians who were forced to leave their country,\u201d said attorney Adnan al-Masalmeh who represented families of Najib’s victims. \u201cToday marks a victory of right against injustice, a victory of the Syrian people against the ousted regime.\u201d <\/p>\n

Assad and his brother Maher fled to Russia<\/a> after the government’s fall in December 2024 and received political asylum. Syria’s new rulers have asked Russia to hand the Assads over. <\/p>\n

Najib, who was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury in April 2011, was later detained and is one of the highest-ranking security officials to be put on trial.<\/p>\n

Najib is a former army brigadier general who was head of the Political Security Branch in Syria\u2019s southern Daraa province under Assad in 2011. <\/p>\n

During his tenure, more than a dozen teenagers who scrawled anti-government graffiti on a school wall in Daraa were arrested and tortured. The case became a catalyst for mass protests against the repressive policies of Assad\u2019s security forces.<\/p>\n

The protests were met by a brutal government crackdown that spiraled into a 14-year civil war that ended with Assad\u2019s ouster in a lightning rebel offensive. <\/p>\n

Some of Najib’s victims were present at the courthouse including two who were teenagers in 2011 and expressed their opinions to The Associated Press. <\/p>\n

\u201cToday we reached a point where the blood was not wasted,\u201d said Mouawiya Sayasneh, about those who died in the crackdown. Fifteen years later, \u201cthere is happiness that Atef Najib was sentenced to death,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Another man, Nayef Abazeid, who was detained at the age of 13 in 2011, expressed his satisfaction with the sentence, adding that \u201cour biggest happiness will be when Bashar Assad is executed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maher Assad was a former commander of the Syrian military\u2019s 4th Armored Division \u2014 which opposition activists have accused of killings, torture, extortion and drug trafficking, in addition to running its own detention centers.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s scenes outside the courthouse reflect 15 years of pain and a justice long denied. Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all cases, including this one,\u201d said Hiba Zayadin, Syria researcher at Human Rights Watch. \u201cIt\u2019s cruel and irreversible, especially when a fair trial isn\u2019t guaranteed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zayadin added that Najib has the right to appeal, and that process \u201cneeds to meet fair trial standards too.\u201d Real accountability for Assad-era crimes depends on Syria building a justice system that lasts, she said.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Kareem Chehayeb contributed to this report from Beirut. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

This story has been edited to correct that Bashar and Maher Assad fled to Russia following the collapse of their government in December 2024, not December 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DAMASCUS, Syria — A Syrian court sentenced ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad along with his younger brother to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[30],"tags":[2371,2961,47634,197,768,81,95,22457,2773,82],"class_list":["post-244827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-syria","tag-2024-2026-mideast-wars","tag-courts","tag-extradition","tag-general-news","tag-military-and-defense","tag-politics","tag-syria","tag-trials","tag-war-crimes","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117077032671512179","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}