🔻A court in Syria has sentenced ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia. The court has charged Mr. Assad with committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during Syria’s civil war and found him guilty.

After the fall of his government in December 2024, Mr. Assad fled from Damascus to Moscow together with his family, ending their family’s five decades in power.

In the same case, the court also sentenced Atef Najib, a relative of Mr. Assad and the former head of political security in Daraa province in southern Syria, to death. When the judge read out the verdict, he was present inside a cell-like enclosure in the courtroom.

Daraa is widely recognized as the birthplace of the uprising against the Assad government.

In March 2011, the arrest and alleged torture of a group of teenagers accused of writing anti-government slogans on walls sparked protests in the city; protests that were met with violent repression by security forces.

This response helped fuel nationwide protests across the country; protests that turned into a widespread civil war, during which hundreds of thousands of people were killed. Continue from:

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