The trial of Syria's former grand mufti, Ahmed Bareddin Hassoun, opened at the Palace of Justice in Damascus on June 26. Hassoun led Syria's official religious establishment under the Bashar Assad dictatorship. He is accused of incitement to murder and abusing his position as a mufti to provide religious cover for the crimes of the regime, as well as participation in war crimes and crimes against humanity. He famously issued fatwas justifying the bombing of civilians and called the regime's use of indiscriminate barrel bombs "liberation," winning him the epithet "Barrel Bomb Mufti." He also issued a fatwa in 2017 authorizing the execution of detainees held at the notorious Sednaya Prison, where the Assad regime killed thousands, many through torture and starvation.

Hassoun was arrested in March 2025, four months after the Assad regime fell, at Damascus Airport while trying to leave the country. The hearing was presided over by Judge Fakhr al-Din al-Aryan, who defected to the Syrian opposition in 2013 and had been sentenced to death by the Assad regime. (The New Arab)

See our last report on the Assad regime's crimes.