A criminal court in Damascus on Tuesday sentenced ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia. His brother Maher al-Assad and his cousin Atef Najib received the same sentence.
DR reports, citing the news agency AP, that the court handed down the death sentences on August 11, 2026. The two brothers were convicted of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during Syria’s civil war. The conflict lasted nearly 14 years and cost around half a million people their lives.
Atef Najib, a former brigadier general in the Syrian army, was sentenced for leading the crackdown in the southern province of Daraa. Protests in Daraa in 2011 marked the start of the uprising against the Assad government. Najib remains in Syria and was present in the courtroom when the verdict was delivered.
Bashar al-Assad and Maher al-Assad were tried in absentia, meaning they were not in court. Both men fled to Russia in 2024, according to DR. Al Jazeera reported that the former president now lives in exile in Russia.
Al Jazeera also reported that the Damascus court found Bashar al-Assad guilty of crimes against humanity. The outlet specified the charges in the case as premeditated murder, torture and crimes against humanity. It named Maher al-Assad and Atef Najib as receiving death sentences in the same proceedings.
Najib was arrested in January last year, DR reports. He was convicted of crimes against humanity, including the deliberate killing of children under the age of 15 and torture resulting in death. Those details were reported by the Danish news agency Ritzau.
The fall of the Assad government
Bashar al-Assad was toppled during a rapid offensive that unfolded over a few weeks in November and December 2024. Over the years, his government was accused of extensive war crimes. The accusations included the use of chemical weapons and systematic torture.
The war began in 2011 after demonstrations calling for political change were met with force. Background coverage from the BBC describes how pro-democracy protests and violent repression escalated into full-scale conflict. The reference work Britannica gives a similar account of the war’s origins.
The available reporting does not point to a separate procedural trigger for the timing of Tuesday’s ruling, such as a newly scheduled hearing or a fresh indictment. The sources record only that the Damascus court issued its verdict on August 11, 2026. The case forms part of continuing legal proceedings in Syria over abuses committed during the war.
No official judicial document or statement from Syrian authorities was available in the material reviewed. AP, Reuters and the BBC had no separately verifiable filings on the verdict beyond DR’s reference to AP. The details above are therefore attributed to DR, Al Jazeera and Ritzau.
