A Syrian court sentenced former president Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia on Tuesday, convicting him on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the country’s civil war.
Sentenced alongside Assad was his maternal cousin Atef Najib, who led the security crackdown in the southern province of Daraa in 2011 – the brutal response to early protests that many historians mark as the trigger for Syria’s broader civil war.
Unlike Assad, Najib was present in court, standing inside a cage in a prisoner’s uniform as the judge read the verdict.
Najib had served as a brigadier general and head of the Political Security Branch in Daraa under Assad’s government. He was arrested after the regime’s collapse and became one of the most senior former officials to face trial under Syria’s new transitional authorities.
Assad and his brother Maher left for Russia in December 2024 as insurgent forces moved into Damascus, ending more than two decades of Assad family rule.
Tuesday’s ruling is the first death sentence issued against Assad by the transitional government, which has this year begun prosecuting former regime figures both in person and in absentia.
