The Damascus Fourth Criminal Court on Tuesday sentenced ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia for war crimes committed during the country's nearly 14-year civil war, alongside his brother Maher and his cousin Atef Najib, in the first ruling under Syria's transitional government against the deposed leader and his family.
The verdict is the first conviction of al-Assad since he fled to Moscow in December 2024, ending more than 50 years of family rule, and gives Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa's government a signature act of accountability against a regime whose most senior figures remain beyond its reach in Russia.
The charges
Bashar al-Assad was convicted of premeditated murder, torture and crimes against humanity, Al Jazeera reported. His younger brother Maher, who commanded the army's elite Fourth Division and also fled to Moscow after the regime's collapse, was convicted of premeditated murder and torture. Najib, the former head of political security in Deraa province, who was arrested in January 2025, was convicted of crimes including murder, "the intentional killing of children under 15" and "torture leading to death," the court said.
Five other former officials were sentenced to death in absentia, including former Defense Minister Fahd al-Freij and Louay al-Ali, al-Assad's military intelligence chief in Deraa in 2011.
In the courtroom
Najib wore a striped prison uniform and stood inside a cage as Judge Fakhr al-Din al-Aryan read the sentence, the BBC reported. Al-Aryan said Najib had denied the charges and showed "no remorse." Addressing testimony against al-Assad, the judge said witnesses had established the former president's role as "the highest decision-maker" and that he had used state institutions to facilitate the crimes.
Deraa is widely seen as the birthplace of the uprising against al-Assad. In March 2011, the detention and alleged torture of teenagers accused of writing anti-government graffiti sparked protests met with a violent crackdown by security forces, escalating into a civil war in which hundreds of thousands died.
Nouha al-Masri, a plaintiff and member of the five-person prosecution team whose brother was killed in the 2011 Deraa massacre, told the BBC the verdict "reflects the magnitude of the sacrifices we made." Her demand, she said, "is that this not be the end of the trials."
Moscow's shield
Whether Syria can carry out the sentences against the al-Assad brothers remains an open question. Russia has granted the former president asylum and has so far refused to extradite him, despite repeated demands from Damascus. Al Jazeera's Obaida Hitto, reporting from the Syrian capital, said Moscow is unlikely to reverse course barring "a major political breakthrough between the two countries."
The transitional government is pressing other countries, including Lebanon, to return former officials in hiding or detained abroad, Hitto said. Tuesday's ruling is expected to serve as a legal template for further prosecutions of security officials tied to the ousted regime.