Damascus Court Sentences Bashar Al-Assad, Maher Al-Assad, Atef Najib To Death In Absentia

The SOURCE ARTICLES provided here focus on a Syrian court case rather than events in Gaza, but they describe a Tuesday sentencing in Damascus in which Bashar al-Assad was sentenced to death in absentia after a trial over crimes during Syria’s nearly 14-year war.

“A Syrian court sentenced ousted leader Bashar al-Assad to death on Tuesday after a trial in absentia”

Reuters

Reuters says the court convicted Assad of crimes including killings, torture, and arbitrary arrest, and it reports that Syrians gathered around the court in Damascus chanting, clapping and waving the Syrian flag as news of the sentences spread.

21News

Al Jazeera reports that the Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus found Bashar al-Assad guilty of premeditated murder, torture and crimes against humanity and sentenced him to death in absentia, with the ruling also covering his brother Maher al-Assad and cousin Atef Najib.

Reuters adds that Assad was ousted in a rebel offensive in December 2024 and is currently in Russia, where he and his family were granted asylum on humanitarian grounds.

In the same Reuters account, the judge issued the same death sentence in absentia to Maher al-Assad and also sentenced Atef Najib, an Assad-era security official in the southern province of Deraa, to death.

In Damascus, Reuters reports that Noha al-Masri, a prosecutor present at Tuesday’s sentencing, said, "The ruling that came, as we expected, was as big as the sacrifices that Syrians gave for 15 years," linking the verdict to the losses of families and relatives of the martyrs.

Reuters also quotes Anwar al-Bunni, head of the Syrian Centre for Legal Studies and Research, who said, "This is performative justice, not transitional justice," arguing that a death sentence would diminish any chance of Assad and fellow defendants being repatriated.

Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera’s Obaida Hitto, reporting from Damascus, said the ruling "is going to bring a lot of relief to the Syrian people," and he described it as contributing to a "healing process."

Al Jazeera adds that Hitto said Syrians want to see those who "tortured their children, displaced them from their homes and destroyed their communities be held to account for these crimes."

Reuters reports that in Deraa, crowds gathered to celebrate and carried pictures of people arrested or killed during the war, including Hamza al-Khatib, a 13-year-old boy activists said was arrested by Syrian security forces, then tortured and killed.

The Reuters account frames the sentencing as the first Syrian conviction against Assad, and it says the trial process was nearly four months, billed by Syria’s new Islamist-led authorities as a sign the country was prioritising transitional justice.

“"no one will hand over a criminal to a country that issues a death sentence"”

Reuters

Reuters reports that some said the death sentence would cut off the road to repatriation, because "no one will hand over a criminal to a country that issues a death sentence," according to Anwar al-Bunni.

Al Jazeera reports that Syria has repeatedly demanded that Russia extradite al-Assad, but it says Moscow has so far refused to extradite him and has granted him asylum.

Al Jazeera also says Hitto believes Moscow is unlikely to reverse course on al-Assad, barring "a major political breakthrough between the two countries," while adding that other al-Assad-era officials residing elsewhere, such as in Lebanon, could potentially be returned.

In the Al Jazeera account, Hitto says Damascus is calling on countries where wanted al-Assad-era officials "are either in hiding or being detained" to send them back to Syria, and he describes the verdict as setting a strong legal precedent for others accused of crimes under al-Assad’s rule.