Tuesday August 11, 2026
Bashar al-Assad, left, and Atef Najib [File: AFP and Getty Images]
More than a year after his ouster, Syria’s former President Bashar al-Assad has been sentenced to death alongside his brother Maher al-Assad and cousin Atef Najib for crimes committed during the country’s nearly 14-year war.
The Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus ruled on Tuesday that Bashar al-Assad, who was toppled in December 2024 and now lives in exile in Russia, was guilty of premeditated murder, torture and crimes against humanity. He was sentenced to death in absentia.
The court also sentenced his younger brother Maher al-Assad, who is also living in Russia, to death in absentia on charges of premeditated murder and torture.
Najib, who headed political security in southern Syria’s Deraa province and was arrested in January last year, received a death sentence for “crimes against humanity”.
He was in Deraa when he launched a deadly crackdown on protesters in 2011, an operation that helped ignite the uprising and the civil war that followed. Najib stood inside a courtroom cage in a prisoner’s uniform as the judge announced the verdict.
The charges included murder, “the intentional killing of children under 15” and “torture leading to death”, according to the court.
Judge Fakhr al-Din al-Aryan said Najib rejected the accusations and had displayed “no remorse”.
Several other former military and security officials who fled Syria were also sentenced to death in absentia. They included al-Assad’s Defence Minister Fahd al-Freij and Louay al-Ali, his military intelligence chief in Deraa in 2011.
‘Healing process’
The verdicts against al-Assad and his relatives mark the first such rulings by the transitional authorities, which began prosecuting figures from the former government this year.
In court, Judge al-Aryan said witness testimony demonstrated that the former Syrian leader was “the highest decision-maker” in the crimes and had deployed state institutions to help carry them out.
Al Jazeera’s Obaida Hitto, reporting from Damascus, said the ruling “is going to bring a lot of relief to the Syrian people” and help advance their “healing process”.
“This is something they’ve waited for a long time,” Hitto said. “They want to see these people that tortured their children, displaced them from their homes and destroyed their communities be held to account for these crimes.”
“This is a historic moment for Syria,” he added.
A crowd assembled outside the Damascus court following the sentencing. Some of those gathered held photographs of people who were tortured or killed during the war.
Hitto said the ruling could also establish an important legal precedent for others accused of crimes committed under al-Assad’s rule.
“People across Syrian towns are looking for justice, not just for al-Assad, but for the executioners,” said Al Jazeera’s Osama bin Javaid.
Syria has repeatedly urged Russia to extradite al-Assad, a longtime ally of Moscow who reportedly now leads a life of luxury in the Russian capital.
Despite maintaining ties with Syria’s new government, Moscow has so far refused to hand over al-Assad, whom it granted asylum.
Hitto said Moscow was unlikely to change its position on al-Assad without “a major political breakthrough between the two countries”.
He said, however, that other officials from the al-Assad era living abroad, including in Lebanon, might be returned.
“The Syrian government has been working with Lebanese officials to identify individuals who are currently in Lebanon to bring them back to the country,” Hitto said. He added that Damascus was urging countries where wanted al-Assad-era officials “are either in hiding or being detained” to return them to Syria.
