A Syrian court on Tuesday sentenced former president of Syria Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia after convicting him of “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” committed during the country’s civil war.
The ruling is the first death sentence against a former senior government figure under Syria’s transitional authorities, which this year began prosecuting officials from Assad’s former government both in person and in absentia.
Assad’s maternal cousin Atef Najib was also sentenced to death in the same case for his role in the crackdown in Daraa province that helped trigger the 2011 uprising and subsequent civil war.
Najib, a former Syrian army brigadier general who headed the Political Security Branch in Daraa in 2011, appeared in court under tight security wearing a prisoner’s uniform. He stood inside a cage as the judge read the sentence.
The court convicted Najib of offences including murder, the intentional killing of children under 15 and torture resulting in death, according to the ruling.
It classified the acts as “crimes against humanity” and imposed “the harshest punishment against him, which is the death penalty”.
Najib was detained after Assad’s government fell and became one of the highest-ranking former officials to face trial.
Assad, born in 1965, became president in 2000 following the death of his father, Hafez al-Assad.
His rule was dominated by the civil war that began after security forces responded with deadly force to protests demanding democratic reforms during the Arab Spring in 2011.
The conflict lasted more than a decade and was marked by widespread allegations of abuses by the former government.
Assad and his brother Maher fled to Russia after insurgents entered Damascus in December 2024.
The latest proceedings form part of the transitional authorities’ efforts to prosecute figures associated with the former government.
The cases include defendants appearing before the courts as well as those, such as Assad, tried in absentia.
