A Syrian court has sentenced former President Bashar al-Assad to death after finding him guilty of “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” committed during the country’s civil war.
The sentence was handed down on Tuesday in absentia, as al-Assad remains outside Syria following his removal from power.
Atef Najib, al-Assad’s cousin and a former Syrian army brigadier general, was also sentenced to death over his role in the crackdown in Daraa that helped trigger the uprising and subsequent civil war.
Unlike al-Assad, Najib was present in court and stood inside a prisoner’s cage wearing a prison uniform as the judge delivered the verdict.
Najib headed the political security branch in Syria’s southern Daraa province under al-Assad in 2011.
He was arrested in January last year and convicted of several offences, including murder, “the intentional killing of children under 15”, and “torture leading to death”.
The court said it imposed “the harshest punishment against him, which is the death penalty” because of his “crimes against humanity”.
The verdict against al-Assad marks the first major ruling against the former Syrian leadership under the country’s transitional authorities, which began prosecuting officials from the previous government both in person and in absentia.
Al-Assad fled Syria with his family and travelled to Moscow in December 2024 as Islamist-led forces advanced towards Damascus, bringing his long rule to an end.
The former Syrian leader was also named corrupt person of the year by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) in 2024.