Symbolic imageSyria sentences Assad and eight others to death for war crimes
A Damascus court on Tuesday sentenced ousted president Bashar al-Assad, his brother Maher and seven other former officials to death over the civil war that killed about 500,000 people.
The Fourth Criminal Court convicted Assad of premeditated murder, including of children under 15, torture, arbitrary detention and crimes against humanity carried out through state institutions. It is the first verdict against him since rebels drove him out in December 2024, ending five decades of Assad family rule. The judges ordered the Assad brothers pursued internationally, but Russia, where they live in exile, has refused extradition.
The only man in the dock
Assad's cousin Atef Najib, Deraa's political security chief in 2011, was the only defendant present, in prison uniform in a courtroom cage. His case covered the torture of 15 boys held for anti-Assad graffiti, the spark of the uprising.
Deraa celebrates
In Deraa, mosque loudspeakers carried chants of 'God is greater'; relatives of the dead celebrated outside the justice palace in Damascus.
Justice under the old law
The sentences, open to appeal, came under the Assad-era criminal code; a transitional justice law is expected only later this year. Syrian political adviser Malik al-Abdeh told FAZ the trial's pace showed a lack of seriousness.
Other opinions
Breitbart calls Syria's new leadership a junta under a former al-Qaeda lieutenant; FAZ reads the verdict as symbolic politics by the transitional government.