The Damascus Criminal Court on Tuesday, 20 Mordad, sentenced Bashar al-Assad, the former president of Syria, his brother Maher al-Assad, Aatef Najeeb, the former head of the political security branch in Daraa, and six other officials of the former Syrian government to death. The charges raised in this case include premeditated murder, torture resulting in death, arbitrary arrest, and crimes against humanity.

Bashar al-Assad was tried in absentia in this case. The presiding judge found him guilty of “intentional and premeditated killing of more than one person and children, torture, arbitrary arrest, and crimes against humanity” and sentenced him to death.