{"id":84222,"date":"2026-04-26T12:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T12:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/84222\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T12:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T12:12:09","slug":"syria-begins-long-awaited-first-trial-of-assad-era-officials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/84222\/","title":{"rendered":"Syria begins long-awaited first trial of Assad-era officials"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The first public trial in Syria of officials linked to the rule of former President Bashar al-Assad opened in Damascus on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Atef Najib, a former Syrian army brigadier general who was head of the Political Security Branch in southern Syria\u2019s Daraa province under Assad, and who is also a cousin of the former president, appeared in the courtroom to face charges related to \u201ccrimes against the Syrian people,\u201d the state-run news agency SANA reported.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Najib was in that position in 2011 when 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 government security forces.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The protests were met by a brutal government crackdown and spiralled into a 14-year civil war that ended with Assad\u2019s ousting in December 2024 in a lightning rebel offensive. Assad fled to Russia, while most members of his inner circle also escaped Syria.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Former head of political security in south Syria\u2019s Daraa province, Atif Najib, attends the first trial session at the Palace of Justice, in Damascus on Sunday. Photo: AFP\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/411f846e-3ca7-4650-86f1-a35b3c889d2e_a43bc2f0.jpg\" title=\"Former head of political security in south Syria\u2019s Daraa province, Atif Najib, attends the first trial session at the Palace of Justice, in Damascus on Sunday. Photo: AFP\"\/>Former head of political security in south Syria\u2019s Daraa province, Atif Najib, attends the first trial session at the Palace of Justice, in Damascus on Sunday. Photo: AFP<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Assad himself and his brother, Maher, former commander of the Syrian military\u2019s 4th Armored Division \u2013 which Syrian opposition activists have accused of killings, torture, extortion and drug trafficking, in addition to running its own detention centres \u2013 were charged in absentia, along with a number of other former high-ranking security officials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first public trial in Syria of officials linked to the rule of former President Bashar al-Assad opened&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[1828,29343,2735,30034,887,670,9150,30037,30036,55,30035,95,1491,29450,30033],"class_list":{"0":"post-84222","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-syria","8":"tag-ahmad-al-sharaa","9":"tag-amjad-yousef","10":"tag-assad","11":"tag-atef-najib","12":"tag-bashar-assad","13":"tag-damascus","14":"tag-daraa","15":"tag-maher","16":"tag-political-security-branch","17":"tag-russia","18":"tag-sana","19":"tag-syria","20":"tag-syrian-army","21":"tag-tadamon","22":"tag-transitional-justice-process"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116470949537353341","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84222","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=84222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}