DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — A former Islamic religious leader was sentenced Monday to life in prison in the latest Syrian court trial against officials affiliated with former President Bashar Assad’s government. Former grand mufti Ahmad Badreddine Hassoun, an Assad loyalist who openly supported government policies, was found guilty of inciting violence and justifying murder. He served as mufti from 2005 to 2021, when the position was abolished. Judge Fakhreddine al-Aryan, head of the Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus, said the official religious establishment under Assad’s government had “justified the use of barrel bombs targeting civilian areas and causing widespread destruction, which constitutes a violation of the norms of international humanitarian law.” Several other senior Assad-era officials, including Assad himself and his brother, Maher, have been sentenced to death in recent weeks, many of them in absentia. Hassoun was detained and present in court. Some human rights groups have expressed concern that the trials are being rushed and potentially unfair, but the sentences have been welcomed by many Syrians who had previously expressed frustration that the new government was not moving quickly or forcefully enough against Assad-era figures. Massive anti-government protests broke out in Syria in 2011 and were met by a brutal government crackdown, leading to a nearly 14-year civil war that left around half a million dead and displaced more than half of Syria’s pre-war population. 23 million. The war ended with the overthrow of Assad in a lightning offensive by Islamist-led insurgents in December 2024.
