❌ Damascus court sentences Syria’s former president Bashar al-Assad to death in a trial in absentia.

This is the first such ruling against Assad since the arrival of Syria’s transitional leaders; leaders who overthrew his government in December 2024 and promised to pursue those responsible for crimes during Assad’s rule.

After the rapid advance of forces led by Ahmed al-Sharaa toward the capital, Syria, Assad left the country and went to Moscow.

Fakhr al-Din al-Aryan, a judge at the Damascus court, announced on Tuesday that Assad was found guilty of charges including “intentional murder, the intentional killing of more than one person, intentional murder of children under 15 years of age, torture, torture resulting in death, and deprivation of liberty on multiple occasions”; charges that the court classified as “crimes against humanity and war crimes.”

The Damascus Criminal Court, since Farvardin (starting in April) of last year, began the judicial proceedings for Assad’s case and a number of other former officials of the country, some of whom were tried in court and some of whom were tried in absentia. These individuals were accused of committing widespread crimes during the civil war; the war that began in 2011 with the severe crackdown on peaceful protests against Assad’s government.

During this war, more than 500,000 people were killed, millions were displaced, and tens of thousands also went missing; many of them had been transferred to the prisons of the former government.

The court also sentenced six former military and security officials to death in absentia, including Maher al-Assad, Bashar al-Assad’s brother, and the commander of Syria’s Fourth Division. Maher al-Assad also fled Syria after the fall of his brother’s government.

Syria’s protests began in March 2011 in Daraa, after 15 students were detained on the grounds of writing anti-government slogans on the city’s walls. Residents of Daraa said the students were tortured, and protests calling for their release formed in response, which were suppressed with violence.

Security forces used live ammunition to disperse the protesters, and the protests spread to other provinces of Syria.

Assad’s family ruled Syria for more than five decades. Bashar al-Assad became president in 2000, after the death of his father, Hafez al-Assad.