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Syrian justice condemns former President Bashar al-Assad to death for war crimes and crimes against humanity

The former dictator, who was overthrown in December 2024 and exiled in Moscow, ruled Syria for more than two decades. The sentence also condemns eight other people, including Assad's brother and cousin.

Paris (France), 11/08/2026.- (FILE) - Syrian President Bashar al Assad addresses the media at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, France, 13 November 2009 (reissued 11 August 2026). A Syrian court found guilty and sentenced Bashar al Assad to death in absentia 11 August 2026 for premeditated murder of people including children, torture, arbitrary detention and crimes against humanity. (Francia, Siria) EFE/EPA/LUCAS DOLEGA
The former dictator in a stock image. Photo: Efe.

A Syrian court on Tuesday sentenced former President Baxar al-Assad to death for war crimes and crimes against humanity in his first public ruling against a former senior officialof the regime since the beginning of the transitional justice process.

Al-Assad, ousted in December 2024 and exiled in Moscow, has been found guilty of murder, torture, arbitrary detention and other crimes during the 2011 protests.

As for Nayib, the cousin of the former Syrian president, he is credited with the beginning of the Syrian uprising after he ordered the arrest and torture of children who painted anti-government graffiti on the wall of a school.

In fact, the court finds it proven that, as Dera's chief of security, he oversaw torture and other crimes during the 2011 protests in the south of the country in the context of the Arab Spring revolution.

According to some NGOs, 224 civilianswere killed, including many minors, and 81 soldiers were shot in the backafter the insurgency refused to stifle them.

The brutal repression of the Syrian army in Dera was one of the catalysts of the civil war, a conflict that ended in December 2024 when a combined attack by armed groups under the banner of jihadist organization Hayat Tahrir al Sham, led by current Syrian President Ahmed al-Shara, overthrew al-Assad.

Scary.

The sentence also condemns Maher Hafez al-Assad, the younger brother of the former Syrian president, the army general and one of the most feared figures; and former defence ministers and deputy commanders of the armed forces, Fahd Jassim al Freij; and Ayman Ayoush, Louay al Ali, Qusay Ibrahim Mahyoub, Wafiq Nasser, and Talal Fares al Aisami, all escaped after the fall of al-Assad.

The verdict was read on Tuesday by the judge of Damascus Criminal Court No. 4, Fakhr al Din al Uryan, and was attended by Attorney General Hasan al Turbeh, the chairman of the Transitional Justice Commission, Abdulbaset Abdullatif, and other members of the commission, representatives of international legal and humanitarian organizations and relatives of the victims.

The trial was the first in the era of transitional justice in Syria and the first public prosecution of a former senior security official for the 2011 crackdown.

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