Syriaupdated 1h ago3 min read
Aleppo Military Court Sentences Al-Wadih Ismail And Maher Ali To Death Over Syrian Coast Violations
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Two defendants sentenced to death by Aleppo court over coastal violence. Al-Waddah Ismail and Maher Ali convicted of incitement to civil war and sectarian fighting.
Aleppo issues coastal verdicts
A military criminal court in Aleppo issued rulings in a second session tied to violations along the Syrian coast, with 10 defendants including 3 from the ousted regime’s elements and officers and 7 from the ranks of the Ministry of Defense. The court sentenced al-Wadih Ismail and Maher Ali to death and gave Maher Othman a 12-year prison term for crimes committed during the events on the Syrian coast. The court also imposed a 20-year prison term on Muhammad Bakour of the 82nd Brigade of the Ministry of Defense after convicting him of intentional murder.
The court handed Ammar Abdul Aal a 3-year prison sentence for torture and sentenced Nabeer Shannan and Khaled al-Muhmiid to 2 years each for involvement in torture, while it gave Mahmoud Shahin a two-month prison sentence for the misdemeanor of causing harm. The court acquitted Abdul-Rahouf Bakr and Muhammad Zarzouri of intentional murder due to lack of evidence, and it counted the pretrial detention period for all convicted individuals.
Charges tied to incitement
The Military Criminal Court convicted Waddah Ismail and Maher Ali of acts intended to incite civil war and sectarian fighting, and of leading armed groups to attack public forces, and it sentenced them to death.
The court convicted Maher Othman of complicity in the same offenses and sentenced him to 12 years in prison, as state news agency SANA reported on Thursday.
The court’s verdicts followed earlier rulings issued on Sept. 17 against four defendants accused of involvement in abuses during the violent incidents, including one death sentence, one life imprisonment term, and a 20-year prison sentence.
The trials began at the Palace of Justice in Aleppo on Nov. 18, 2025, with victims’ relatives in attendance, and subsequent hearings focused on reviewing evidence and examining defendants’ legal arguments.
A national commission investigating the events said remnants of the former Syrian regime launched widespread attacks on March 6, 2025, killing 238 personnel, and it documented violations against civilians in the days that followed.
Numbers and appeals ahead
Euronews said the Military Criminal Court issued its verdicts in the second session in the case of violations that occurred in Syria’s coastal regions in March 2025, involving 10 defendants including three officers and elements of the Bashar al-Assad regime and seven personnel from the Ministry of Defense. Euronews reported that the March 2025 events left hundreds dead and cited the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights saying the violence killed about 1,700 people, the vast majority from the Alawite community. The court also sentenced Mohammed Bakour to 20 years in prison for intentional murder and ordered execution for al-Wadih Ismail and Maher Ali, while it sentenced Ammar Abdul Aal to three years for torture and gave Captain Mustafa Shanan and Khalid al-Muhammad two years for involvement in torture.
The court acquitted Abdul Rauf Bakr and Mohammed Zarzouri of the charge of intentional murder for lack of sufficient evidence, and the rulings were described as subject to appeal before the Court of Cassation under Syrian law. The National Commission for Inquiry and Fact-Finding said the events began on March 6, 2025 and lasted three days, and it submitted its final report to the president in July 2025 after field visits and hearing hundreds of testimonies in the Latakia and Tartus countryside.