Twenty months after the collapse of a 53-year dynastic dictatorship, Syrians have witnessed a historic milestone in their long pursuit of accountability: former President Bashar al-Assad and key members of his regime have been sentenced to death for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The landmark ruling, handed down by the Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus and broadcast live on state television, marks the first judicial convictions against Assad and his inner circle since his government was ousted in December 2024. Presiding judge Fakhareddine al-Aryan stated that the former president systematically leveraged state agencies to commit widespread atrocities during Syria's 14-year civil war, a conflict that claimed approximately half a million lives.
Also sentenced to death in absentia was Assad's younger brother, Maher Assad, the former commander of the military's notorious 4th Armored Division. Opposition activists and investigators have long linked the division to arbitrary detention, torture, extrajudicial killings, extortion, and drug trafficking. Both brothers fled to Russia following the rebel offensive that ended their rule, where they were granted political asylum. Syria's current administration has formally requested Moscow to extradite the pair to face justice.
While the Assad brothers remain beyond the court's physical reach, one high-profile co-defendant heard his sentence in person. Atef Najib, Assad's maternal cousin and a former army brigadier general, stood inside a courtroom cage wearing prisoner attire as his death sentence was delivered under tight security. In 2011, as head of the Political Security Branch in the southern province of Daraa, Najib directed the arrest and brutal torture of more than a dozen teenagers who had painted anti-government graffiti on a school wall—an act of state violence that sparked nationwide protests and ultimately ignited the civil war.
News of the verdict triggered emotional gatherings across the country. In central Damascus, crowds assembled outside the Palace of Justice to hear the decision read aloud, while residents in Idlib—the long-standing opposition stronghold that served as the launchpad for the final offensive—erupted in celebration, viewing the court's judgment as a symbolic reckoning for decades of repression.