Syrian court sentences Bashar al-Assad to death for murder, torture, crimes against humanity

A Syrian court convicted former president Bashar al-Assad in absentia of premeditated murder, torture, arbitrary detention, and crimes against humanity, sentencing him to death on Tuesday. The verdict, confirmed by state news agency SANA, also condemned Atef Najib, a security official under Assad, to death. Assad fled to Moscow in December 2024.

A Syrian court sentenced former president Bashar al-Assad to death on Tuesday, convicting him of premeditated murder of multiple people, including children, torture, arbitrary detention, and crimes against humanity. The verdict, confirmed by Syria's official news agency SANA, was delivered in absentia, as Assad fled Damascus in December 2024 and has been living in the Moscow area since. Atef Najib, a security official under Assad, was also sentenced to death. Assad, born in 1965, became president in 2000 after his father Hafez died. His rule was defined by civil war, which spiraled out of the 2011 Arab Spring, when Syrians demanding democracy took to the streets and were met with deadly force. The article notes Assad maintained the family's rule and the dominance of their Alawite sect in the Sunni Muslim-majority country, and Syria's status as an Iranian ally hostile to Israel and the US.