A Damascus court on Tuesday sentenced Syria’s former dictator Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during the country’s years-long civil war.
The court also handed the same sentence to seven other former security officials, including Assad’s brother Maher and cousin Atef Najib, in the first such ruling since the fall of the regime in December 2024.
Assad has been living in exile in Russia since then, and Syria’s new leadership, headed by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, has asked for his extradition. Russia, a longtime military benefactor to Assad when he was in power, has maintained relations with the new regime and has hosted Sharaa twice. It has not indicated if it will oblige.
Only Najib, who was head of the Political Security Branch in southern Syria’s Daraa province under Assad, was at the court on Tuesday to hear the ruling. Najib was placed under U.S. sanctions in 2011 for his role in suppressing anti-regime protests that sparked years of civil war. He was captured almost two months after the fall of the regime.
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