{"id":245401,"date":"2026-08-11T23:21:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T23:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/245401\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T23:21:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T23:21:16","slug":"syrian-court-sentences-assad-to-death-in-absentia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/245401\/","title":{"rendered":"Syrian court sentences Assad to death in absentia"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Syrian court on Tuesday sentenced ousted former<\/a> President Bashar al-Assad<\/a> to death in absentia after it convicted him on counts of murder, torture and crimes against humanity before and after the country’s civil war.<\/p>\n

The sentencing by the Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus is the first against al-Assad since the dictator was overthrown in 2024, according to the Syrian state-aligned news outlet, SANA.<\/a><\/p>\n

“Bashar Assad used state agencies to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity,” Judge Fakhareddine al-Aryan said during a court session on state TV, according to the Associated Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The court also sentenced the ousted president’s brother, Maher al-Assad, to death in absentia for having led the 4th Armored Division \u2014 a Syrian Army unit that killed dissidents during the country’s massive 2011 protests and recaptured Syrian territory from those that revolted against the regime until its dissolve in 2024<\/p>\n

Activists have accused the division of murder and torture, drug trafficking and keeping rebels, as well as civilians, in detention centers.<\/p>\n

The sentences for al-Assad and his brother, as well as six other former officials, are mostly symbolic. The pair received asylum in Russia after the dictator’s government collapsed, bringing an end to the family’s 50-year reign.<\/p>\n

The court extended the sentence in absentia death sentence to six other al-Assad officials. The only member of al-Assad’s regime present in court Tuesday was his maternal cousin, Atef Najib \u2014 who also oversaw the crackdown on Syrian dissent.<\/p>\n

Najib, dressed in a prison uniform, stood in a cage while his death sentence was read to him, the AP reported.<\/p>\n

Attorney Adnan al-Masalmeh, who represented the families of Najib’s victims, said it was “the day of justice for all the wounded, martyrs, detainees and Syrians who were forced to leave their country,” according to the outlet.<\/p>\n

But experts say the sentences will likely diminish any possibility that al-Assad and his former officials face justice in Syria. Anwar \u2060al-Bunni, head of the Syrian Centre for Legal Studies and Research, told Reuters<\/a> that the sentences were “performative justice,” arguing that “no one will hand over a criminal to a country that issues a death sentence.”<\/p>\n

Al-Assad became president after his father died in 2000. He maintained Syria’s relationships with Russia and Iran while opposing the U.S. and Israel. His rule spiraled following the Arab Spring protests in 2010 and 2011, as pro-democracy Syrians took to the streets to call for elections and an end to the regime.<\/p>\n

The use of chemical weapons during the war constituted a “red line<\/a>” for the U.S., former President Obama said in 2012, calling for al-Assad to step down.<\/p>\n

In 2018, President Trump also criticized al-Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons, calling the ousted leader an “animal<\/a>.” The ousted leader has denied these claims.<\/p>\n

Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham<\/a> \u2014 an Islamist militant organization established after multiple groups, including former al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, merged into one faction \u2014 overthrew al-Assad’s government in 2024.<\/p>\n

Ahmed al-Sharaa<\/a>, the group’s leader and former al-Qaeda member, took over as Syria’s new president in 2025. He has since become the first Syrian leader to visit the White House<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

\u00a0For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Syrian court on Tuesday sentenced ousted former President Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia after it convicted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[30],"tags":[1613,1721,68137,18050,68155,38838,95,1491,2773],"class_list":["post-245401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-syria","tag-bashar-al-assad","tag-crimes-against-humanity","tag-death-in-absentia","tag-death-sentence","tag-fourth-criminal-court","tag-maher-al-assad","tag-syria","tag-syrian-army","tag-war-crimes"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117079446959570185","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245401","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=245401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}