A Damascus criminal court sentenced ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia Aug. 11 after convicting him of murder, torture, arbitrary detention and crimes against humanity. This was the first judgment issued by Syria's own courts against the head of a government that ruled the country for decades and put down a 2011 uprising with a wave of harsh repression, sparking a war that killed hundreds of thousands of people.

The Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus, which Syrian outlets have described as designated for “transitional justice” cases, also handed down death sentences to Assad's younger brother, Maher al-Assad, as well as their maternal cousin Atef Najib, who headed the Political Security Branch in Daraa province. Maher al-Assad commanded the Republican Guard and the army's Fourth Armored Division.

The charges trace back to early 2011, the height of the Arab Spring, which saw waves of pro-democracy protests across the Middle East and North Africa. In March of that year, security forces in the southern city of Daraa detained a group of 15 schoolchildren accused of vandalism over alleged anti-regime graffiti. The children were ultimately released "bruised and bloodied after severe torture in detention," according to Human Rights Watch, which interviewed dozens of local witnesses and reviewed video footage of the surrounding events.

The children’s treatment in custody set off local protests that quickly spread nationwide. The government responded with live fire on demonstrators, mass arrests, and raids, including on Daraa's Omari Mosque. The uprising escalated into a civil war that lasted nearly 14 years. UN human rights investigators documented 350,209 conflict-related deaths between March 2011 and March 2021, of which an estimated 306,887 were civilians. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimated the total 14-year fatality figure to have been nearly 657,000.

Beyond the Assad family, six other former military and security officials tried as fugitives received death sentences, including Assad's defense minister Fahd Jassim al-Freij and Louay al-Ali, who Al Jazeera reported was military intelligence chief in Daraa in 2011.

The presiding judge, Fakhr al-Din al-Aryan, said investigations and witness testimony established that Assad participated in the crimes as the highest decision-maker and used state institutions to carry them out, according to the state news agency SANA.

Al-Aryan said Najib’s political security branch stormed the Omari Mosque in Daraa alongside other security agencies and that Najib led the security operation against civilians there at the outset of the 2011 uprising—a campaign referred to in his interrogation as "the trap," according to SANA. Najib may appeal, according to The Associated Press.

Assad and his brother fled to Russia in December 2024 and received political asylum; Syria's transitional authorities have asked Moscow to hand them over.

Syrian courts do not publish judgments, and no written decision in the case has been released as of the time of publication.

From JURIST, Aug. 11. Used with permission. Internal links added.

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