A Syrian court on Tuesday sentenced former leader Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia after finding him guilty of charges including war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the country’s civil war.
Assad’s maternal cousin, Atef Najib, was also sentenced to death in the same case for leading the crackdown on protests in the southern province of Daraa, a campaign that helped trigger the uprising and later contributed to the outbreak of the civil war.
Under tight security, Najib stood inside the defendants’ cage wearing a prison uniform as the judge read out the verdict.
Assad and his brother, Maher, fled to Russia after rebel forces entered Damascus in December 2024.
Najib was later arrested and became one of the highest-ranking officials from the former regime to face trial.
A former Syrian army brigadier general, Najib headed the Political Security Branch in Daraa province in southern Syria in 2011 under Assad’s regime.
The ruling against Assad marks the first decision of its kind by Syria’s transitional authorities, which this year began prosecuting figures from the former government both in their presence and in absentia.
