Syria’s ousted president Bashar al-Assad and Atef Najib, the former head of political security in southern Syria’s Deraa province, have been sentenced to death by a criminal court in Damascus.
On Tuesday (10 August) the Damascus court found Bashar al-Assad guilty of premeditated murder, while Najib was convicted of premeditated murder and torture. Bashar al-Assad was sentenced in absentia after being convicted over charges relating to war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during Syria’s civil war.
The acts attributed to the ousted Syrian ex-President are "crimes against humanity", the court said as it handed down "the harshest punishment against him, which is the death penalty".
Prosecutors had sought the death penalty for Najib, Bashar al-Assad, Maher al-Assad and other defendants during a hearing last week, citing accusations that included crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The ruling is the first death sentence handed down against Assad by Syria’s transitional authorities, who began prosecuting figures from the former government this year, both in person and in absentia.
Bashar al-Assad fled Syria with his family for Moscow in December 2024, as Islamist-led forces advanced on Damascus, bringing an end to his nearly 24-year rule.
Also sentenced to death in the same case was Assad’s maternal cousin Atef Najib for leading the crackdown in the southern province of Daraa that led to the uprising and later the civil war.
Amid tight security, Najib stood inside a cage wearing a prisoner’s uniform as the judge read the sentence.
Bashar al-Assad and his brother Maher fled to Russia after insurgents marched into Damascus in December 2014.
Unlike al-Assad and members of his family who fled to Russia when the regime fell in December 2024, Najib has been in detention in Syria since January 2025. During his trial, he was charged with at least 10 crimes, including murder, torture and responsibility for massacres, as well as crimes against humanity linked to the 2011 Deraa crackdown on protesters.
Najib was later detained and became one of the highest-ranking officials to be put on trial.
Najib is a former Syrian army brigadier general who was head of the Political Security Branch in southern Syria’s Daraa province under Assad in 2011.
