A criminal court in Damascus on Tuesday sentenced former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and a former regional security chief, Atef Najib, to death. The court convicted the two men on charges including premeditated murder and torture related to the government’s actions at the start of the Syrian uprising in 2011.
The court found Assad guilty of premeditated murder. Najib, the former head of political security in the southern province of Deraa and a cousin of Assad, was convicted of both premeditated murder and torture. According to the verdict, the court determined that crimes committed in Deraa in 2011 amounted to crimes against humanity.
The charges are connected to events that occurred in March 2011 in Deraa. At that time, protests began after local youths were detained and reportedly tortured by security forces under Najib’s command for writing anti-government graffiti. The response by government forces to the ensuing demonstrations is widely documented as a primary trigger for the nationwide protests that escalated into the Syrian civil war.
Assad held the presidency of Syria from 2000 until the end of his government’s rule. The subsequent conflict lasted over a decade, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths and the displacement of millions, according to figures from the United Nations and other international monitoring groups.
Further details about the trial, including the specific evidence presented and the duration of the proceedings, were not immediately made public. The verdict is among the first legal rulings issued by the current authorities in Damascus against senior officials of the former government. No information has been released regarding the appeals process or when the sentences might be carried out.
