Bashar al-Assad ruled Syria for nearly a quarter of a century, survived a nationwide uprising, a brutal civil war, international outrage and repeated calls for his removal. Even as cities were destroyed and millions of Syrians fled their homes, Assad remained in power.
Damascus court sentenced Assad to death in absentia, finding him responsible for killings, torture, arbitrary arrests and crimes against humanity committed during the years of conflict. His younger brother, Maher al-Assad, and former security official Atef Najib were also handed death sentences.
The ruling is the first conviction of Bashar al-Assad by a Syrian court since his government collapsed in December 2024. It is a dramatic moment for a country that spent years waiting for an end to his rule, and even longer waiting for answers about what happened to those who disappeared, were tortured or never came home.
Assad is not in the courtroom. He is in Russia, where he fled after rebel forces swept into Damascus and brought down his government in December 2024. Moscow granted him asylum, leaving Syria with a problem that the death sentence alone cannot solve.
The court can condemn Assad, but it cannot easily reach him. For the families of his victims, however, the judgment carries a different significance. It places the former president himself at the center of a criminal case and formally holds him responsible for abuses carried out under his government.
The sentence may never be physically carried out. But inside Syria, the symbolism is enormous. The man who once controlled the country’s army, intelligence agencies and political institutions has now been declared a convicted criminal by a court in the capital he once ruled.
Assad’s younger brother Maher was given the same punishment. Maher was one of the most powerful men in the former regime and commanded the Fourth Armoured Division, an elite military force that became closely associated with the government’s campaigns against its opponents.
