The criminal court in Damascus sentenced na death former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, Reuters reported.
Bashar al-Assad was sentenced in absentia for premeditated murder, and the court judged that the crimes committed in Daraa province in 2011 constituted crimes against humanity.
The death sentence was handed down while Assad is in Russia, where he fled after the fall of his regime in December 2024.
This is the first conviction against the former Syrian president, who has been in power since 2000, when he succeeded his father Hafez al-Assad.
His brother Maher al-Assad was also sentenced to death.
The Assad regime faced mass protests in 2011, which turned into a civil war and a multi-year conflict that killed hundreds of thousands of people. During the war, numerous murders of civilians, mass arrests, torture and other serious violations of human rights were recorded.
Assad was ousted in December 2024, when rebel forces entered Damascus and ended decades of rule by the Assad family. The former president then left Syria and went to Russia, which gave him refuge.
Unrealistic execution of sentence
In addition to Assad, former Syrian security official Atef Najib was also sentenced to death. He was the head of the Political Security Service in Daraa province and one of the key figures in the suppression of protests at the beginning of the Syrian uprising in 2011.
The verdict against Assad comes at a time when the new Syrian government is trying to prosecute those responsible for the worst crimes committed during the civil war.
However, execution of the death sentence on Assad is currently not realistic, since he is outside Syria, in Russia. His eventual extradition would depend on the decision of the Russian authorities.
During his rule, Assad was strongly supported by Russia, which intervened militarily in the Syrian war in 2015 to help his government retain power.
The new verdict thus represents primarily a symbolic and legal blow to the former Syrian leader, while the question of his actual apprehension and execution of the sentence remains open.
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