Syrian Court Sentences Bashar al-Assad to Death in Absentia for War Crimes

DAMASCUS, Syria —

A Syrian court sentenced ousted president Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia on Tuesday, convicting him of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the country's 14-year civil war, in which roughly 500,000 people died, according to the Guardian. It is the first conviction handed down against Assad, who fled to Moscow with his family after his government collapsed in December 2024, ending his family's 50-year hold on power, the BBC reported.

The court also sentenced Assad's younger brother, Maher al-Assad, who commanded the army's Fourth Division and was viewed as the regime's top security official, according to the Guardian. Four other former military and security officials, including former defense minister Fahd al-Freij, received the same sentence, the BBC reported. Judges found Assad guilty of what the court described as "premeditated and intentional murder of more than one person and of children," along with torture, arbitrary arrest and crimes against humanity, according to the South China Morning Post.

A verdict rooted in Deraa

Among those sentenced was Atef Najib, Assad's cousin and the former head of political security in the southern province of Deraa, widely seen as the birthplace of the uprising against Assad's rule, the BBC reported. Najib appeared in court in a prison uniform, held inside a cage, as his sentence was read, according to the Guardian. He was convicted of murder, the killing of children under 15 and torture leading to death, the BBC reported.

In March 2011, security forces detained and allegedly tortured a group of teenagers accused of spraying anti-government graffiti in Deraa, touching off protests that spread nationwide and escalated into civil war, according to the BBC. Nouha al-Masri, a prosecutor in the case who lost her brother in the 2011 crackdown, told the BBC that "in the new Syria, there will be no impunity from this day forward." Outside the courthouse, crowds gathered waving flags and photos of relatives killed under Assad, honking horns and chanting, the BBC reported.

Little chance of an execution

Assad fled Damascus as forces led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, now Syria's president, swept to power in an 11-day offensive, the BBC reported. Syria's interim government has detained numerous former officials since then, but most senior figures from Assad's government, including Assad and his brother, remain in Russia, out of reach, according to the BBC. The court said it would pursue international legal channels to prosecute the two men, though Russian officials have previously refused to extradite their former allies, the Guardian reported.

Syria has seen repeated bursts of sectarian violence since Assad's fall. About 1,500 mostly Alawite civilians were killed in retaliatory attacks in March 2025, and more than 1,700 people died in factional killings in the Druze-majority province of Suweida that July, according to the Guardian. Assad, who belongs to Syria's Alawite minority, took power in 2000 after the death of his father, Hafez al-Assad, and was not originally expected to lead the country until his brother, Basil, died in a car crash in 1994, the BBC reported.