A Syrian court has sentenced former President Bashar al-Assad and his younger brother, Maher Assad, to death in absentia over crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during the country’s 14-year civil war.
The verdict, delivered Tuesday by the Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus, marks the first death sentences handed down against Assad or members of his inner circle since his family’s nearly five-decade rule ended with his ouster in December 2024.
“Bashar Assad used state agencies to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity,” judge Fakhareddine al-Aryan said during a court session broadcast live on state television.
Assad, who ruled Syria from 2000 until his removal, fled the country for Russia alongside Maher after rebel forces toppled his government.
The brothers were subsequently granted political asylum in Russia, while Syria’s new authorities have repeatedly called on Moscow to surrender them for prosecution.
Assad’s maternal cousin, Atef Najib, was also sentenced to death in the same case.
Najib was convicted over his role in a security crackdown in Daraa in southern Syria that helped trigger the uprising against Assad’s government in 2011.
Najib, a former Syrian army brigadier general who headed the Political Security Branch in Daraa, was present in court and stood inside a security cage wearing a prisoner’s uniform as the verdict was announced.
He was accused of overseeing the detention and torture of teenagers who were arrested after writing anti-government slogans on a school wall in Daraa. The incident fuelled protests that rapidly spread across Syria and eventually developed into a devastating civil war.
The conflict, which lasted 14 years, killed about half a million people and displaced millions before Assad was driven from power.
Maher Assad, who previously commanded Syria’s elite 4th Armored Division, has also been accused by opposition activists of involvement in killings, torture, extortion and drug trafficking, as well as operating detention facilities.
Najib, who was sanctioned by the United States in 2011, is among the most senior officials from Assad’s former government to face trial since the fall of the regime.
