Why was Syria’s former President sentenced to death | Explained

Bashar al-Assad, who dominated Syria for greater than twenty years earlier than being pressured to flee amid a civil warfare in 2024 and ending the Assad-era after 5 a long time, has been sentenced to death along with his brother Maher al-Assad, who commanded the infamous ‘fourth division’ of the navy and was thought-about the regime’s prime safety official, cousin Atef Najib, and 6 others.

Whereas Najib is at the moment being held in Syria and was current for trials and ruling, the opposite eight have been sentenced in absentia, with the Assad brothers dwelling underneath Russian asylum. Whereas extradition of these sentenced in absentia and imposition of the sentences is likely to be an arduous job for the current authorities underneath Ahmad al-Shaara, the previous al-Qaeda operative with hyperlinks to the Islamic State who led the short motion in opposition to the Assad regime as Abu Muhammad al-Jolani in 2024 earlier than taking on, the sentencing will act as a device of transition for the nation.

The judicial proceedings in opposition to the Assad brothers and their loyalists have been the outcomes of the efforts by the Nationwide Fee for Transitional Justice (NCTJ) arrange by Mr. Shaara in Might 2025 to analyze severe human proper abuses through the “earlier regime” and maintain these accountable to account.

The Fourth Felony Courtroom in Damascus, presided over by Choose Fakhr al-Din al-Aryan, started trial of the ousted chief and others in April this yr and convicted him, his brother, cousin, and the six others of homicide, torture, illegal depravation of liberty, crimes in opposition to humanity, and warfare crimes. The costs return to the crackdown on the Daara rebellion of 2011, the place dissatisfaction over authoritarian regime spilled out onto the streets together with the Arab Spring sweeping West Asia. The protests in Syria have been sparked by the detention and alleged torture of youngsters who drew anti-Assad graffiti on partitions in Daraa. Demonstrations in opposition to this detention have been met with a crackdown which ignited nationwide actions and later instability which opened the avenues for a civil warfare.

The court docket heard witnesses who have been minors on the time recall torture together with beating, electrical shocks, suspension, and nail elimination, with Najib, who was then the pinnacle of political safety in Daraa, personally interrogating some. The court docket held the ousted chief Assad accountable for a “joint felony mission”, saying that as President all through the interval lined by the case, together with the years-long civil warfare that adopted shortly after the rebellion, he had energy over state establishments whereas the crackdown and different crimes happened. The previous President was convicted particularly for intentional homicide of a number of individuals, intentional killing of kids underneath 15, intentional killing accompanied by torture and brutality, and incitement to intentional homicide on a number of events.

With the 2 Assad brothers dwelling in Russia, which has beforehand denied extradition request by the Shaara administration because it was a powerful Syrian ally through the earlier regime and helped it within the civil warfare in opposition to U.S. backed Kurdish group Syrian Democratic Forces and different militias, the court docket and the administration will discover it arduous to impose the sentence. Nevertheless, the court docket has ordered arrest warrants in opposition to the “fugitives”, directing authorities to take needed measures for his or her worldwide prosecution. Following this, Syria’s Deputy Justice Minister Mustafa al-Qassem on Wednesday introduced the formation of a committee to hunt the extradition of these convicted, saying that the panel would coordinate with Interpol to safe their handover.

In the meantime, Amnesty Worldwide expressed issues over the judicial proceedings, stressing shortly after the decision was issued that trials and loss of life sentences in absentia are incompatible with worldwide requirements of fair-trial ensures. The sentencing of the Assad brothers and others adopted the latest precedent set by Bangladesh, whose ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was equally sentenced to loss of life in absentia for crimes in opposition to humanity by the nations Worldwide Crimes Tribunal in November final yr.

Reacting to the proceedings in Syria, Amnesty famous that prosecuting these accountable for grave violations of human rights was key to attain justice, however stated that trials in absentia ought to be abolished if the Sharaa authorities wished to “actually flip the web page on the horrors of the previous”. Nevertheless, Syria’s Justice Ministry pushed again in opposition to the organisation’s criticism, saying its assertion “doesn’t precisely mirror the character of the judicial procedures adopted in these circumstances or the safeguards assured to litigants underneath Syrian legislation”.