Syria sentences Bashar al-Assad to death for crimes against humanity

A Syrian court on Tuesday sentenced ousted ruler Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia after finding him guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the country’s civil war.

The ruling marks the first death sentence against Assad by Syria’s transitional authorities, which began prosecuting senior figures from his former government earlier this year.

Assad fled Syria with his family and took refuge in Moscow in December 2024 after Islamist-led forces captured Damascus and ended his rule.

The Damascus criminal court also sentenced former Assad-era security official Atef Najib to death for premeditated murder and torture. Najib, a cousin of Assad, was accused of overseeing the torture of detainees, including children, and of being responsible for multiple deaths during the conflict.

Najib appeared in court under heavy security, standing inside a cage in a prisoner’s uniform as the judge announced the death sentence.

A former Syrian army brigadier general, he headed the Political Security Branch in Daraa province in southern Syria in 2011, when the uprising against Assad began. He was later arrested and became one of the most senior former regime officials to face trial.

Assad family’s long rule

Born in 1965, Bashar al-Assad took power in 2000 after the death of his father, Hafez al-Assad, who had ruled Syria for nearly 30 years. Bashar remained in power until his government collapsed in December 2024.

His government maintained the influence of the Alawite minority in the predominantly Sunni country and kept Syria closely aligned with Iran while remaining opposed to Israel and the United States.

The civil war began in 2011 after Syrian security forces violently suppressed anti-government protests in Deraa.

In 2013, UN inspectors found strong evidence that nerve gas had been used in an August 21 attack on areas around Damascus. The then UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon condemned the incident as one of the gravest uses of weapons of mass destruction in the 21st century.

The unrest quickly spread across the country, turning into a prolonged conflict involving government forces, rebel groups and foreign powers. The war was marked by widespread allegations of killings, torture, enforced disappearances and other serious abuses.