Ousted Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad gets death sentence in landmark verdict
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Ousted Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad gets death sentence in landmark verdict")
File image for representation Photograph: (AFP)
A Syrian court has sentenced the country's ousted president, Bashar Al-Assad, to death on Tuesday (Aug 11) for committing crimes against the Syrian people.
A Syrian court on Tuesday (Aug 11) sentenced former president Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia after convicting him of charges including premeditated murder, torture, arbitrary detention and crimes against humanity linked to the country’s civil war.
The ruling, reported by Syria’s state news agency SANA, marks the first death sentence handed down against Assad by the country’s transitional authorities, which have begun prosecuting senior figures from his former government both in person and in absentia.
Judge Fakhr al-Din al-Arrian, who presided over the case, said Assad had been convicted of “premeditated murder” against multiple people, including children, as well as torture, arbitrary detention and crimes against humanity, SANA reported.
Assad was ousted in December 2024 after Islamist-led opposition forces captured Damascus. He subsequently fled Syria with his family and was granted refuge in Russia.
The verdict comes as Syria’s transitional authorities pursue legal proceedings against members of the former Assad government over alleged abuses committed during the conflict, which began in 2011 and lasted for nearly 14 years.
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Assad was not present for the proceedings and remains in Russia, meaning the sentence cannot currently be carried out unless he is arrested or handed over to Syrian authorities. The case is part of a broader effort by Syria’s new authorities to hold former government figures accountable for alleged crimes committed during Assad’s rule. Several former officials have already faced proceedings, including cases involving allegations of torture, murder and other abuses.
