Court in Damascus Sentences Bashar al-Assad to Death in Absentia
First ruling by transitional authorities: former Syrian president found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. His former security chief also sentenced to death.
First ruling by transitional authorities: former Syrian president found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. His former security chief also sentenced to death.
A criminal court in Damascus on Tuesday, August 11, 2026, sentenced former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia. The verdict was handed down on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during Syria's civil war, according to the Italian news agency ANSA. The 14-year conflict claimed around half a million lives and displaced millions of people, reports highlight.
In addition to Assad, the court also sentenced Atef Najib, the former head of political security in the southern Syrian province of Deraa, to death. Unlike Assad, Najib was sentenced in his presence, reports French newspaper Le Figaro. As reported by the Associated Press, Najib was in the courtroom under strict security measures, standing in a cage wearing a prison uniform while the judge read the verdict.
Furthermore, Assad's younger brother, Maher Assad, was also sentenced to death, tried in absentia as he, like his brother, is in exile in Russia. Both were found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the 14-year conflict, which, according to agency data, claimed around half a million lives.
Atef Najib, a relative of the Assad family on his mother's side, is a former brigadier general in the Syrian army. In 2011, during Assad's rule, he headed the Political Security branch in the southern province of Daraa. His role in the brutal suppression of protests in that area led to the uprising and subsequently to the civil war. Najib was arrested after the fall of the regime and became one of the highest-ranking former officials to be tried by the new authorities.
This is the first verdict issued by Syria's transitional authorities, which began prosecuting officials of the former regime earlier this year. Trials are being conducted both in the presence of defendants and in absentia, according to the Hindustan Times. Bashar al-Assad ruled Syria for nearly a quarter of a century, having inherited power from his father, Hafez al-Assad, and his tenure was marked by initial hopes for reforms that, after the outbreak of protests in 2011, turned into brutal repression.
The court also decided that former President Assad must be "prosecuted at the international level," ANSA reports, citing Al Arabiya television. The specific mechanisms of international prosecution were not detailed in the sources.
Bashar al-Assad was ousted in December 2024, when forces led by Islamists, headed by current President Ahmad al-Sharaa, captured Damascus. Al-Sharaa, who is backed by Turkey, took power, and Assad fled to Moscow with his family. According to the Norwegian news agency NTB, his brother Maher also took refuge in the Russian capital, and it is assumed they are still there today. Their departure from the country came after opposition forces marched into the capital, effectively ending the war in the country.
