DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — A Syrian court on Tuesday convicted in absentia ousted President Bashar Assad and his brother of murder, torture and crimes against humanity committed before and during the country’s 14-year civil war that left nearly half a million dead. The verdicts from a court in Damascus are the first against Assad or any member of his inner circle since his family’s five decades in power came to an end 20 months ago. However, they are mostly symbolic, because Assad and his brother Maher had fled to Russia, where they received asylum after the surprising collapse of the Syrian government in December 2024. Six other former officials were also sentenced to death in absentia. The only former official sentenced to death and detained is Assad’s maternal cousin, Atef Najib, who oversaw a crackdown on dissent that led to an uprising that sparked civil war. Najib was inside a cage wearing a prisoner’s uniform as the judge read his sentence aloud, and a crowd gathered outside the heavily guarded court. Although Assad is unlikely to ever face justice, the verdicts will be popular with many Syrians, especially those who have expressed frustration that the new government has not acted quickly or forcefully enough against Assad-era figures. However, some human rights groups expressed concern that the trials were rushed, potentially unfair and, at the very least, exposed flaws in Syria’s justice system. “Bashar Assad used state agencies to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity,” Judge Fakhareddine al-Aryan said during a court session that was broadcast live on state television, in contrast to Assad-era trials, which were held in secret. The verdicts that al-Aryan read aloud found Assad and the others guilty of premeditated murder, including against children, as well as other acts of brutality, including torture. Al-Aryan said Najib could appeal. “Today is the day of justice for all the wounded, martyrs, detainees and Syrians who were forced to leave their country,” said lawyer Adnan al-Masalmeh, who represented the families of Najib’s victims. “Today marks a victory for the right against injustice, a victory for the Syrian people against the overthrown regime.” Najib is one of the highest-ranking security officials tried. He is a former army brigadier general who was in charge of political security in the southern Syrian province of Daraa. Subscribe to Morning Wire: Our flagship newsletter breaks down the day’s biggest headlines. During his tenure, more than a dozen teenagers who scrawled anti-government graffiti on a school wall were arrested and tortured. The case became a catalyst for mass protests against the repressive policies of Assad’s security forces. The protests were met by a brutal government crackdown in 2011 that led to a civil war that ended with Assad’s overthrow in a lightning rebel offensive. Some of Najib’s victims were present in court, including two who were teenagers in 2011 and expressed their views to The Associated Press. “Today we reached a point where blood was not wasted,” Mouawiya Sayasneh said of those who died in the crackdown. Fifteen years later, “there is joy because Atef Najib was sentenced to death,” he said. Another man, Nayef Abazeid, arrested when he was 13 in 2011, expressed his satisfaction with the sentence, adding that “our greatest happiness will be when Bashar Assad is executed.” Maher Assad was a former commander of the Syrian army’s 4th Armored Division, which opposition activists have accused of murder, torture, extortion and drug trafficking, as well as running its own detention centres. “Today’s scenes outside the court reflect 15 years of pain and justice long denied,” said Hiba Zayadin, Syria researcher at Human Rights Watch. He said the human rights group opposes the death penalty in all cases, including this one, because “it is cruel and irreversible, especially when a fair trial is not guaranteed.” He said Najib’s appeal process “must meet the standards of a fair trial.” True accountability for Assad-era crimes depends on Syria building a lasting justice system, he said. The Washington-based Syria Justice and Accountability Center described Najib’s conviction on Tuesday as a “historic step in Syria’s transition period” but said it exposed major flaws in the justice system that likely jeopardized his right to a fair trial. He said SJAC’s trial monitoring team attended Najib’s trial and documented multiple issues, such as rushed proceedings and witness testimony, that did not connect Atef to the crimes he was accused of. SJAC said Najib’s lawyer “lacked the ability and willingness to meaningfully engage in the case or mount an adequate defense.” ___ Associated Press writers Kareem Chehayeb and Bassem Mroue contributed to this report from Beirut. ___This story has been edited to correct that Bashar and Maher Assad fled to Russia after the collapse of their government in December 2024, not December 2014.
