A Syrian court sentenced ousted leader Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia on August 11, 2026, convicting him of premeditated murder, torture, and crimes against humanity. The ruling marks the first Syrian conviction against Assad since his removal from power during a rebel offensive in December 2024.
Trial and Death Sentences Issued in Damascus
A Damascus court handed down death sentences on August 11, 2026, to ousted president Bashar al-Assad, his brother Maher al-Assad, and former security official Atef Najib. The tribunal convicted the former leaders of premeditated and intentional murder of more than one person and of children, torture, arbitrary arrest and crimes against humanity during nearly fourteen years of war. The judge issued the same sentence in absentia to Assad’s brother Maher, who headed the fearsome Fourth Armoured Division, which was responsible for crackdowns on protests, recapturing Syrian territory on behalf of Assad and was accused of spearheading the production and trade of drugs to enrich Assad. A death sentence was also handed down to Atef Najib, an Assad-era security official in the southern province of Deraa, where the first protests against Assad erupted in 2011.
Assad fled the capital Damascus as rebel fighters closed in nearly two years ago, and is currently in Russia, where he and his family were granted asylum on humanitarian grounds. Because Assad and his brother Maher were tried in absentia, the court issued their sentences without them present in the courtroom. However, Atef Najib—an Assad-era security official and cousin of the Assads—was detained by Syrian security forces in early 2025 and was the only accused to be tried in person.
Public Celebrations and Reactions in Daraa and Damascus
Syrians gathered around the court in Damascus, chanting, clapping and waving the Syrian flag as news of the sentences spread. Similar demonstrations took place in Deraa, where crowds also gathered to celebrate and carried pictures of people arrested or killed during the war, including ones of Hamza al-Khatib, a 13-year-old boy who activists said was arrested by Syrian security forces, then tortured and killed.
Noha al-Masri, a prosecutor present at Tuesday’s sentencing, lost her own brother in a crackdown on a Deraa protest in 2011. The ruling that came, as we expected, was as big as the sacrifices that Syrians gave for 15 years, as big as the suffering of the families and relatives of the martyrs,
Masri told Reuters.
Legal Debate Over Transitional Justice and Repatriation
The sentencing follows a nearly four-month trial process, billed by Syria’s new Islamist-led authorities as a sign the country was prioritising transitional justice to move away from Assad’s rule. However, some said the death sentence would diminish any chance of Assad and his fellow defendants being repatriated to face justice in their home country.
Syria’s first Ramadan television season since the fall of Bashar Al Assad in December 2024 has unfolded under unusual scrutiny, featuring prominent titles such as Caesar: No Place, No Time, also distributed as Devil’s Prisons. Directed by Mustafa Safwan Naamo and described as inspired by true stories
, the production draws on testimonies from detention centres during the Assad era. Structured as 10 separate trilogies and featuring a high-profile cast including Saloum Haddad, Ghassan Massoud, Fayyaz Qazq, Samer Ismail and Sabah Jazairi, it arrived as one of the season’s most prominent titles, though it quickly became the subject of a mounting public backlash regarding the timing of dramatising detainees’ experiences.
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