In a landmark ruling that could reshape Syria’s painful transition from dictatorship to justice, a court in Damascus has sentenced ousted former president Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia for crimes committed during the country’s devastating civil war.
Assad’s younger brother, Maher al-Assad, and their cousin, Atef Najib, were also handed death sentences in the same case. The verdict represents the first major criminal judgment against the Assad family since their decades-long rule collapsed in December 2024.
Assad was not present in court. He fled Syria following the rapid rebel offensive that toppled his government and has since remained in Russia, where he was granted asylum. His absence means the sentence cannot presently be carried out, leaving the question of whether Syria’s new authorities can ever secure his extradition from Moscow unresolved.
The ruling marks a dramatic reversal for a man who ruled Syria for nearly a quarter of a century after succeeding his father, Hafez al-Assad, in 2000. The Assad family’s grip on Syria ultimately lasted more than five decades before collapsing in December 2024.
The court found Assad responsible for serious crimes committed during Syria’s nearly 14-year conflict, including premeditated murder, torture, arbitrary detention and crimes against humanity.
The war, which erupted after the government violently suppressed anti-government protests in 2011, left hundreds of thousands dead and displaced millions of Syrians.
Among those sentenced alongside Assad was Atef Najib, his cousin and former head of Political Security in Daraa, in southern Syria. Najib was present in court when the verdict was delivered and was convicted of crimes including murder, the killing of children under 15 and torture resulting in death.
Najib’s role carries particular significance because Daraa is widely regarded as the birthplace of the 2011 Syrian uprising. The arrest and alleged torture of teenagers accused of writing anti-government graffiti helped trigger demonstrations in the city.
The brutal response by security forces transformed local protests into a nationwide uprising, eventually plunging Syria into a devastating civil war.
For many Syrians, the trial therefore represents more than the punishment of individual officials. It is an early test of whether the country’s new leadership can establish a credible system of accountability for abuses committed during the Assad era.
Syria’s transitional authorities began pursuing senior figures from the former regime earlier this year, with Najib’s trial becoming one of the most prominent proceedings against a former high-ranking security official.
The proceedings have also placed Bashar and Maher al-Assad formally within Syria’s emerging judicial process, despite their continued absence.
The verdict, however, is unlikely to bring immediate closure. Assad remains in Russia, alongside other senior figures from his former government who have avoided arrest.
The Syrian authorities now face the far more difficult challenge of turning a historic court judgment into an enforceable sentence.
For a country devastated by years of war, displacement and repression, the case could become an important milestone in Syria’s search for transitional justice.
Whether it ultimately leads to accountability for those responsible—or remains largely symbolic while the most powerful defendants remain beyond Syria’s reach—will depend heavily on what happens next.
