In a recent ruling issued by a court in Damascus, the capital of Syria, former president Bashar al-Assad and his brother Maher were sentenced to death on Tuesday (August 11th). The court found them guilty of deliberate murder, torture, arbitrary detention, and crimes against humanity committed during the nearly 14-year-long Syrian civil war.
Bashar al-Assad is currently in Russia, while his brother has fled Syria, leading to a trial conducted in their absence. In December 2024, anti-government forces launched an offensive that toppled the Assad regime in just 11 days. Following this, Bashar and his brother fled the capital Damascus, with Assad seeking political asylum in Moscow. Maher’s whereabouts remain unknown after he fled to Russia.
After the fall of the Assad regime, in April 2026, the Syrian interim government initiated public trials against the “core figures” of the Assad regime. This marked the first conviction of the former president by the Syrian judiciary. Bashar al-Assad had held power in Syria since 2000, succeeding his father Hafez al-Assad as president.
The Syrian uprising known as the “Arab Spring” began in 2011, with Bashar al-Assad and his brother Maher leading brutal crackdowns against protesters. Maher, commanding the notorious Fourth Division, was considered the regime’s top security official. The Syrian government’s indiscriminate killings, arrests, and torture of civilians sparked nationwide outrage and escalated peaceful protests into a devastating armed conflict that has lasted nearly 14 years, resulting in approximately 500,000 deaths.
In addition to Assad, another key figure in the same case was former Syrian security official and Assad’s cousin Atef Najib, who was also sentenced to death. During the verdict announcement, Najib, dressed in prison attire, stood in a secure cage while the judge read out the sentence.
Najib was arrested in January last year. He had served as the head of the political security department in Daraa province and was one of the highest-ranking officials on trial. He was charged with playing a significant role in the suppression of local anti-government protests in 2011. The court found him guilty of multiple crimes, including murder, “intentional killing of children under the age of 15,” and causing death through torture, constituting violations of humanitarian law, for which he was handed the “harshest punishment.”
Currently, Russia is providing asylum to Bashar al-Assad. If the new Syrian government aims to execute the judgment, the first challenge would be how to request Russia to extradite Assad. However, analysts believe the symbolic significance of the verdict far outweighs the immediate prospects of its enforcement.