Former Syrian President Assad sentenced to death in absentia

A Syrian court sentenced ousted President Bashar al-Assad and his younger brother Maher to death in absentia on Tuesday, according to prosecutors. This marks the first time sentences have been handed down to Assad or his inner circle since the end of the five-decade family rule 20 months ago. The court, in Damascus, found Assad guilty of using state agencies to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity, as stated by judge Fakhareddine al-Aryan during the live televised court session.

Atef Najib, Assad's maternal cousin, was also sentenced to death for overseeing a crackdown in the southern province of Daraa that triggered the uprising and subsequent civil war. Najib appeared in court wearing a prisoner's uniform inside a cage, surrounded by a crowd gathered outside the courthouse. Assad and Maher fled to Russia after the government's fall in December 2024, receiving political asylum.

The Assad regime has requested Russia to hand over the brothers. Najib, previously detained and sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury in April 2011, is one of the highest-ranking officials to face trial. He was the head of the Political Security Branch in southern Syria's Daraa province in 2011, overseeing the arrest and torture of over a dozen teenagers who had scrawled anti-government graffiti.

The protests, sparked by these arrests, escalated into a 14-year civil war that ended with Assad's ouster following a rebel offensive. Maher Assad, a former commander of the Syrian military's 4th Armored Division, has been accused by opposition activists of involvement in killings, torture, extortion, and drug trafficking, as well as running his own detention centers.