Syrians Flee to Masnaa Border as Shiite and Alawite Minorities Fear Islamist Retaliation

As Bashar al-Assad’s regime collapsed, Shiite and Alawite minorities who had been recruited by the Syrian regime’s soldiers and militias feared retaliation by the Islamists now in power.

“It is no longer simply about losing power or influence; today بشار الأسد وشقيقه ماهر face what could be described as 'civil death”

Al-Jazeera Net

Men, women, and children waited on the road to the Lebanese border crossing at Masnaa, where more than a thousand Syrians were waiting on Thursday, December 12, some since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime four days earlier.

Al-Jazeera Net

Samira Jorg, a 46-year-old Syrian woman and mother of five, described conditions at the border, saying, "Only those who have a passport and a visa pass. The situation is catastrophic."

She said, "We are cold, we are hungry, we have sick people with us," and added, "There are no sanitary facilities," as her family wrapped in thick blankets and sought shelter while they waited for Lebanon to open its doors.

While displaced families waited at Masnaa, Syria’s official television reported that Bashar al-Assad, his brother Maher al-Assad, and figures from the former regime were stripped of their civil rights and had movable and immovable properties confiscated.

The report said the announcement came in a video clip shown during the trial of the head of the former Political Security Directorate in the Daraa Governorate in 2011, Brig. Gen. Atif Najib, and that the court charged Najib with systematic mass killing.

France 24

In the same development, the court announced that eight leaders of the former regime headed by Bashar al-Assad and Maher al-Assad were stripped of their civil rights, and their movable and immovable properties were placed under government administration after their trial in absentia.

The Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus also ordered suspending live broadcasting of media from inside the courtroom during Najib’s trial, with the judge citing the need to protect witnesses and preserve secrecy of sensitive information.

The judicial process described in the sources centers on the second session of the public trial of senior figures, with the Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus charging Atef Najib and stripping Bashar and Maher al-Assad of civil rights.

In one account, the judge of the Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus, Fakhreddin al-Arian, ordered suspending the live broadcast and barred media outlets except for the Ministry of Justice’s media assigned to record the proceedings, with recordings to be released later after review and redaction.

The indictment summary described charges tied to events in Daraa Governorate in early 2011, where the peaceful movement was met with excessive force, and Najib, as head of the Political Security Directorate at the time, was said to bear direct and joint leadership responsibility for systematic acts targeting civilians.

A separate lawyer quoted in the same source warned that the trial’s credibility depends on legal and institutional factors, including "the independence of the judiciary from the security apparatus," and argued that omitting core crimes could lead to acquittal of the gravest crimes and exclude large swaths of victims.