Former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has been sentenced to death in absentia by a Syrian court over charges linked to war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the country’s 14-year conflict. His younger brother Maher al-Assad, a former Syrian military leader, and their maternal cousin Atef Najib were also sentenced to death in the same case.
The ruling is the first such case against senior figures of the former government under Syria’s transitional authorities, who began prosecuting members of the old regime this year. Bashar al-Assad, who ruled Syria from 2000 until his overthrow in 2024, fled to Moscow with his family as Islamist-led forces closed in on Damascus.
Bashar al-Assad and the family dynasty that ruled Syria for decades
Born on September 11, 1965, Bashar al-Assad is a former politician, medical doctor and military officer. He became Syria’s president after the death of his father, Hafez al-Assad, who had ruled the country from 1970 to 2000. Bashar also served as commander-in-chief of the Syrian Arab Armed Forces and secretary-general of the Central Command of the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party.
The Assad family ruled Syria for more than five decades. When the Arab Spring reached Syria in 2011, protests against the government spread across the country. Bashar al-Assad responded with a deadly crackdown, and the unrest eventually turned into a brutal civil war.
Bashar al-Assad accused over crackdown that sparked Syria civil war
The Syrian opposition, United States, European Union and most of the Arab League called for Bashar al-Assad to step down, but he refused. The conflict continued for years, killing more than half a million people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. More than 600,000 people were killed between 2011 and 2024, according to the material, with pro-Assad forces blamed for more than 90 per cent of civilian casualties.
During the war, the Ba’athist Syrian armed forces carried out several chemical attacks. In 2013, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said findings from a UN inquiry directly implicated Bashar al-Assad in crimes against humanity.
Bashar al-Assad cousin gets death sentence over Daraa crackdown
Atef Najib, Bashar al-Assad’s maternal cousin and a former Syrian army brigadier general, was head of the Political Security Branch in southern Syria’s Daraa province in 2011. He was accused of leading the crackdown there, which helped fuel the uprising and later the civil war.
As per reports, the court ruled that Najib was responsible for “the intentional killing of children under 15” and “torture leading to death.” The court described the acts as “crimes against humanity” and said it was handing down “the harshest punishment against him, which is the death penalty.”
Bashar al-Assad fled to Moscow as his regime collapsed
Bashar al-Assad left Syria with family members, including Maher, for Moscow in December 2024 as Islamist-led forces advanced towards Damascus. After the Assad government fell, Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former Al-Qaeda commander once designated a terrorist by Washington, formed Syria’s new government.
Najib stayed in Syria and was later detained. He became one of the highest-ranking figures from the former government to face trial. The death sentences against Bashar al-Assad, Maher al-Assad and Najib mark a major step by Syria’s transitional authorities against figures from the former regime.
The conflict also displaced millions of Syrians, with people fleeing to Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Europe. The Assad dynasty was accused of manipulating sectarian tensions to maintain its grip on power, a legacy that continues to shape violence involving minority communities as Syria’s new leadership promises a political future representing all sections of the country.
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Khalid Lateef is a Sub-Editor at NewsX Digital, specializing in Indian politics and global affairs. He also covers viral trending stories and major crime developments.
