Former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was sentenced to death in absentia on Tuesday, May 11, by the Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus. His brother, Maher al-Assad, and several other high-ranking officials of the former regime were also sentenced to death in the same case. In total, nine former officials were sentenced to death. The court found Bashar al-Assad guilty of premeditated murders of several people, including children, as well as torture, arbitrary detention, and crimes against humanity. The charges also included acts classified as war crimes related to the repression carried out during the Syrian conflict.
His brother Maher al-Assad was also sentenced to death
Maher al-Assad, the younger brother of the former president and former commander of the Syrian army's 4th Armored Division, was also sentenced to death in absentia. Bashar al-Assad and Maher al-Assad are no longer in Syria and were tried in their absence. The court also ordered that the two brothers be prosecuted internationally, as they have been in Russia since the fall of the Syrian regime in December 2024. The prosecution had sought the maximum sentence for the defendants on charges of murder, torture, arbitrary detention, and embezzlement of public funds. The civil parties had also requested their conviction for crimes against humanity and war crimes, citing systematic torture, premeditated murder, the deaths of children under 15, and torture resulting in death.
Atef Najib, one of the faces of the repression in Daraa, personally sentenced
Among those convicted was Atef Najib, Bashar al-Assad's cousin and former head of the Political Security branch in the Daraa province. Unlike the Assad brothers, he was present in court when the verdict was delivered. Placed in the dock and dressed in prison garb, he heard his death sentence pronounced by the judges. Atef Najib was prosecuted for murder, torture, and arbitrary detention, as well as for his participation in the repression of peaceful demonstrations using live ammunition. The charges also included systematic massacres and acts of torture that resulted in the deaths of detainees in detention centers. Arrested by the new Syrian authorities in January 2025, he became one of the highest-ranking officials of the former regime to be detained and brought before the Syrian justice system. His public trial began on April 26, 2026, at the Damascus Palace of Justice.
Deraa and the children arrested in 2011 are at the heart of the case
A central part of the case dates back to the events in Daraa in 2011, considered one of the starting points of the uprising against Bashar al-Assad's regime. More than twenty schoolchildren were arrested after writing anti-regime slogans on walls. Several suffered severe abuse in detention. Their arrest and the violence inflicted upon them sparked protests in Daraa beginning in March 2011. The repression of these gatherings subsequently contributed to the spread of the protest movement throughout Syria. Atef Najib was then head of Political Security in Daraa. He was notably accused of playing a direct role in the repression of the protests, as well as in the arrests and torture carried out at the beginning of the uprising.
Bashar al-Assad has been in Russia since the fall of his regime
Bashar al-Assad ruled Syria for nearly 24 years, from July 2000 until his downfall in December 2024. His regime collapsed after a lightning offensive by rebel forces that led to their entry into Damascus. The former president then fled the country for Russia, where he sought refuge with several members of his inner circle. The war, which erupted after the suppression of the 2011 uprising, lasted nearly 14 years and claimed approximately 500,000 lives, while displacing millions of Syrians both inside and outside the country. The sentence handed down on August 11 is now the harshest Syrian judicial decision against the former head of state since his overthrow. Bashar al-Assad remains outside Syrian territory, however, while the Damascus court has formally requested his prosecution, as well as that of his brother Maher, at the international level.
