A court in Damascus sentenced former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia. Assad’s brother Maher and his cousin Atef Najib were also sentenced to death. The trial against them and other defendants had begun in April.
From Torture to Premeditated Murder
Cheers erupted not only outside the Palace of Justice in Damascus following the verdict. The decision had been read live on state television. The court charged President Bashar al-Assad—who was ousted in December 2024—with premeditated murder, torture, arbitrary detention, and crimes against humanity. He had fled to Russia with his family at the end of 2024.
Serious Charges Also Against Mahir al-Assad
Assad’s younger brother, Mahir, is also believed to be in Russia. The court charged him and other defendants with premeditated and planned murder, as well as torture resulting in death. According to international media reports, Mahir al-Assad was notorious as a brutal “butcher.”
Death Sentence for Daraa Security Chief
The third high-ranking defendant sentenced to death is Assad’s cousin, Atef Najib. He was a brigadier general in the army and the security chief in Daraa. Protests against the Assad regime had begun in that province in 2011. The court accused Najib of being responsible, among other things, for crimes against humanity. He was arrested in January 2025 in Latakia, Syria, and remains in the country.
More than half a million killed in 13 years
Between 2011 and 2024, more than half a million people are said to have been killed in Syria’s so-called civil war. In 2021, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation even reported a death toll of around 600,000.
Representative of many reports:
https://www.br.de/nachrichten/deutschland-welt/gericht-verurteilt-frueheren-syrischen-machthaber-assad-zum-tode,VRyfnem
and Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation 2021:
https://www.bmz.de/de/laender/zehn-jahre-syrienkonflikt
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