A Damascus criminal court sentenced ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his brother Maher al-Assad to death on Tuesday. The sentences were handed down in absentia as both men fled to Moscow after the regime’s collapse in December 2024. Judge Fakhr al-Din al-Aryan convicted the pair on a long list of serious crimes committed against the Syrian people during their brutal rule.
In the verdict, the judge ruled that Assad and his brother are directly responsible for the premeditated murder of masses of civilians, systematic torture, arbitrary arrests, and grave crimes against humanity. The court emphasized that the regime deliberately targeted the civilian population, including intentional and brutal attacks on young children. Alongside the two brothers, Atef Najib, who headed the political security apparatus in Daraa, was also sentenced to death—and was present for his trial.
In a symbolic and extraordinary twist, the judge who sentenced Assad to death, Fakhr al-Din al-Aryan, is himself a judge who defected from the regime in 2013 and was previously sentenced to death in absentia by Assad’s regime. Now, with the revolution complete and Syria’s new judicial system in place, the circle has closed as the judge who issued the verdict sent the deposed tyrant to the gallows—at least on a declarative level.