Bashar al-Assad sentenced to death in absentia for war crimes

A Syrian court has sentenced former president Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the country's civil war. Assad fled Damascus for Moscow with his family in December 2024 following the collapse of his regime, an event that ended more than five decades of Assad family rule. It remains unclear how the new Syrian government intends to pursue his extradition from Russia. In the same proceedings, Atef Najib, Assad's cousin and the former head of political security in the southern province of Daraa, was also sentenced to death. Najib was present in the courtroom during the sentencing. Daraa is widely considered the birthplace of the uprising against Assad. In March 2011, the detention and alleged torture of a group of teenagers accused of writing anti-government slogans on walls sparked protests in the city. The violent crackdown by security forces led to the spread of protests across Syria and the subsequent civil war, which resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths. Najib, one of the highest-ranking officials from the former regime to face trial, was found guilty of charges including murder, the intentional killing of children under 15, and torture resulting in death. The Syrian transitional government began trials for officials and forces linked to the previous regime earlier this year. This is not the first legal action taken against Assad by the new leadership; an arrest warrant for murder and torture was issued last December. Assad fled to Russia as forces led by current president Ahmad al-Sharaa seized power in a rapid 11-day operation. Since then, the new government has detained dozens of former security officials, though most senior figures from the previous regime, including Assad himself, remain in Russia and beyond the reach of Syrian authorities. Previous attempts by Syrian opposition groups to prosecute Assad in Western courts during his final years in power did not result in any convictions.