Assad Condemned to Die

DAMASCUS — For decades, Bashar al-Assad ruled Syria through fear, prisons and overwhelming military force. On Tuesday, a courtroom in Damascus delivered the most dramatic judgment yet against the fallen dictator: death.

The 60-year-old former president was convicted in absentia of premeditated murder, torture, arbitrary detention, war crimes and crimes against humanity. It was the first Syrian conviction against Assad since rebels toppled his government in December 2024, ending his brutal 24-year presidency and more than five decades of Assad-family rule.

Assad’s younger brother Maher, former commander of Syria’s feared Fourth Armored Division, was also sentenced to death in absentia. Six other former officials received the same punishment.

Only one of the principal defendants was actually inside the courtroom: Atef Najib, Assad’s cousin and former political-security chief in the southern province of Daraa. Wearing a prison uniform and standing inside a defendant’s cage, Najib listened as the judge pronounced his death sentence. He retains the right to appeal.

Najib’s name is closely connected to the moment Syria’s uprising began. In 2011, more than a dozen teenagers were arrested and tortured after writing anti-government graffiti on a school wall in Daraa. Protests demanding their release were met with gunfire and mass arrests, helping ignite a nationwide revolt that descended into nearly 14 years of civil war.

The conflict killed roughly half a million people, wounded more than a million and forced millions from their homes. Entire neighborhoods were reduced to rubble, while Assad’s prisons became notorious for torture, executions and disappearances.

International investigations concluded that Syrian government forces used sarin and chlorine in attacks during the conflict. Assad repeatedly denied responsibility. The Damascus verdict, however, was based more broadly on his position as Syria’s highest decision-maker and his direction of state institutions involved in killings, torture and unlawful detention.

Outside the courthouse and in Daraa, crowds celebrated, waved Syrian flags and carried photographs of relatives who had been killed or disappeared. For many families, the ruling was a moment they had waited 15 years to see.

But the dramatic sentence comes with a cold reality: Assad remains beyond the court’s reach.

He fled Damascus as rebel forces closed in during December 2024 and was granted asylum in Russia along with his family. Moscow has shown no indication that it intends to surrender him, making the verdict largely symbolic unless Russia’s position changes.

Some legal and human-rights observers also warned that imposing the death penalty could make extradition even more difficult. Countries commonly refuse to transfer defendants when they could face execution. Critics have additionally questioned whether Syria’s post-Assad judiciary can provide independent courts, capable defense attorneys and trials that meet international standards.

The details of Assad’s private life in Moscow remain murky. Reports that he spends his days playing video games, intends to return to ophthalmology or faces an imminent divorce have not been reliably confirmed and should not be treated as established fact.

What is certain is more consequential: the ruler who once appeared untouchable is now a convicted fugitive living under Russian protection. Syria has delivered its verdict—but whether Assad will ever stand in a Syrian courtroom remains an entirely different question.