A Syrian court sentenced ex-leader Bashar al-Assad to death, convicting him of crimes that occurred during the country’s 14-year conflict.
Judge Fakhareddine al-Aryan said in a statement aired on state television, “Bashar Assad used state agencies to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity,” the Associated Press reports. Assad’s cousin Atef Najib was also sentenced to death, although he can appeal, the court said. The sentences are the first against Assad and those closest to him since the family’s time in power ended.
“Today is the day of justice for all the wounded, martyrs, detainees and Syrians who were forced to leave their country,” attorney Adnan al-Masalmeh, who represented families of Najib’s victims, said. “Today marks a victory of right against injustice, a victory of the Syrian people against the ousted regime.”
Assad and his brother Maher fled to Russia after the government’s 2024 fall, where they received asylum.
Following the overthrow of Assad, Ahmed al-Sharaa became Syria’s new leader. Al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Julani, was the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an organization linked to al-Qaeda.
The U.S. government’s Rewards for Justice website once included a page for al-Julani, which read, “Al-Jawlani leads the al-Nusrah Front (ANF), al-Qa’ida’s (AQ) affiliate in Syria. In January 2017, ANF merged with several other hardline opposition groups to form Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). While al-Jawlani is not the leader of HTS, he remains the leader of AQ-affiliated ANF, which is at the core of HTS.”
“Under al-Jawlani’s leadership, ANF has carried out multiple terrorist attacks throughout Syria, often targeting civilians. In April 2015, ANF reportedly kidnapped, and later released, approximately 300 Kurdish civilians from a checkpoint in Syria. In June 2015, ANF claimed responsibility for the massacre of 20 residents in the Druze village of Qalb Lawzeh in Idlib province, Syria,” the website continues.
