Syrian court sentences Bashar al-Assad, brother to death for war crimes

A Syrian court sentenced ousted President Bashar al-Assad and his younger brother Maher al-Assad to death on Tuesday for crimes against humanity and war crimes perpetrated during the country’s 14-year civil war.

What happened: Judge Fakhr al-Din al-Aryan at the Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus convicted Bashar and Maher al-Assad of premeditated murder, torture, arbitrary arrest and crimes against humanity, sentencing them both to death in absentia, according to Syria’s state news agency SANA.

Assad and his brother fled Syria to Russia following the swift rebel takeover of the country in December 2024.

The court also delivered its verdict in a case against Atef Najib, the former head of political security in the southern province of Daraa and a cousin of Assad.

Najib, who was arrested in January 2025, was also sentenced to death over his role in the violent suppression of the anti-regime protests that began in southern Syria in 2011. He was convicted of murder, systemic torture of detainees and other war crimes.

Six other former officials under the Assad regime, identified as Fahd Jassim al-Freij, Muhammad Ayman Ayash, Louay Ali al-Ali, Qusay Ibrahim Mahyoub, Wafiq Saleh Nasser and Talal Faris al-Assimi, also received the death sentence in absentia for premeditated murder and torture, among other crimes.

According to Aryan, Assad’s role as the “highest decision-maker” during the civil war meant that he had used state institutions to facilitate crimes against the Syrian people.  

Why it matters: The landmark ruling against Assad is the first since Syria’s authorities began trying figures linked to the former regime. The high-profile hearings of Assad and the other defendants began in April.

Since Assad’s fall, Syrian authorities have carried out a series of arrests against remnants of the ousted regime, including high-ranking officers.

President Ahmed al-Sharaa has vowed on several occasions to achieve transitional justice by holding those responsible for crimes and violations during the Assad era accountable.

In a statement carried by SANA on Tuesday, the head of the National Transitional Justice Authority, Abdel Basset Abdel Latif, praised the ruling against the Assad brothers and Najib as an “important milestone on the path to justice, fairness for victims, and the consolidation of the rule of law.”

The Assad family had ruled Syria with an iron fist since Hafez al-Assad assumed power in 1971. He was succeeded by his son Bashar after he died in 2000. In 2011, anti-regime protests began in southern Syria, to which government forces responded violently, triggering a long and brutal civil war across the country. United Nations agencies and rights groups have repeatedly accused the regime of war crimes and human rights abuses.

Over half a million people were killed during the civil war and more than 13 million others displaced.

Know more: Wassim al-Assad, another cousin of the ousted leader, has been on trial at the Fourth Criminal Court since June.

He is accused of forming and leading armed groups at the start of the Syrian civil war under the supervision of the former Syrian military’s elite Fourth Division, which was headed by Maher al-Assad.

According to the accusations, these groups received funding and weapons from Wassim and were involved in the intimidation, terrorizing and killing of dozens of civilians in Rif Dimashq, including in Jaramana and Mleiha.