Syria Sentences Bashar al-Assad to Death
A court in Damascus convicted the former Syrian dictator of premeditated mass murder. Along with him, the head of his intelligence apparatus in the Daraa district, Atef Najib, was also convicted.
The Criminal Court in Damascus issued a death sentence on Tuesday for the ousted Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, who is currently in exile in Russia. Al-Assad stands accused of crimes against humanity committed during the civil war.
The court found al-Assad guilty of premeditated mass murder and crimes against humanity, while Atef Najib was convicted of premeditated murder and torture. Syrian media focused on Najib's sentencing, as unlike the former president, he was arrested and was present at his trial.
The Syrian prosecution also requested to charge Maher al-Assad, Bashar's brother, with crimes of murder, torture, arbitrary arrests, and the squandering of public funds. The prosecution has demanded the death penalty for him as well.
According to the state news agency "SANA", the public prosecutor requested that the defendant Atef Najib and other fugitive defendants mentioned in the case—namely Bashar al-Assad, Maher al-Assad, and others—be found guilty of murder, torture, arbitrary arrest, and the squandering of public funds. The prosecution emphasized that the evidence in the case is coherent and interconnected.
The defendant, Najib, is the cousin of the former president, Bashar al-Assad. He previously served as the head of the Political Security Branch in the Daraa district and bears direct responsibility for the repressive campaigns and arrests that the district witnessed since the beginning of the Syrian revolution in 2011, most notably the incident involving the arrest of children in Daraa in March of that year. He faces charges including:
