Updated on: Aug 11, 2026, 15:04:34 IST By HT News Desk Prefer HTon Google Share via Copy link A Syrian court on Tuesday sentenced the country's ousted President Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia, news agency AFP reported.
Bashar al-Assad (AFP File) The court convicted Assad, who was ousted in December 2024, over charges of "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity" during the Syrian civil war.
Assad fled with his family to Moscow as Islamist-led forces closed in on Damascus at the end of his rule.
“Bashar Assad used state agencies to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity,” said judge Fakhareddine al-Aryan during a court session that was aired live on state TV.
The court also sentenced Atef Najib, the former head of political security in southern Syria’s Deraa province, to death.
Najib, a cousin of Assad, was accused of overseeing the torture of detainees, including children, and of being responsible for multiple deaths during the conflict.
The ruling against Assad and Najib is the first under the transitional authorities, which began trying figures from the former government this year, both in person and in absentia.
Amid tight security, Najib stood inside a cage wearing a prisoner’s uniform as the judge read the sentence.
He was detained and became one of the highest-ranking officials to be put on trial.
The Assad family rule Bashar al-Assad took power in 2000 after the death of his father, Hafez al-Assad, who had ruled Syria for nearly 30 years.
Bashar remained in power until his government collapsed in December 2024.
Shaped in its early years by the Iraq war and crisis in Lebanon, Assad's rule was defined by civil war, which spiralled out of the 2011 Arab Spring, when Syrians demanding democracy took to the streets, to be met with deadly force.
The Syrian security forces violently suppressed anti-government protests in Deraa and other places.
The unrest quickly spread across the country, turning into a prolonged conflict involving government forces, rebel groups and foreign powers.
The war was marked by widespread allegations of killings, torture, enforced disappearances and other serious abuses.
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