Syria's former ruler Bashar al-Assad is sentenced to death for crimes against humanity

A Syrian court has sentenced former ruler Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia, after convicting him over charges of 'war crimes' and 'crimes against humanity' during the country's civil war.

The ruling against Assad, who fled with his family to Moscow as Islamist-led forces closed in on Damascus in December 2024, is the first under the transitional authorities. 

He was also convicted of the premeditated murder of multiple people, including children, as well as torture and arbitrary detention. 

This year, Syrian courts began trying figures from the former government, both in person and in absentia.

al-Assad, whose brutality gave him the nickname 'The Butcher', fled Syria when he was toppled in December 2024 by a collection of rebel forces led by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), whose leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani is now the president of the country. 

Under his rule, Syrian government forces killed civilians en-masse as part of its strategy to defend against the civil war that decimated the nation between 2011 and December 2024. 

The government is believed to have been responsible for killing 90% of the more than 300,000 civilians estimated to have died in that period. 

The civil war also saw the exodus of 6.6million people from the country, who all fled for fear of their lives.  

Between 2011 and 2023, an additional 154,000 were forcibly disappeared or arbitrarily detained by government forces, while more than 135,000 people, including women and children, were tortured, incarcerated or killed in Ba'athist prison networks.  

The deposed ruler is now believed to live in three apartments in a luxury high-rise with a mall downstairs in the Moscow after his former ally Vladimir Putin airlifted him and his family out of the country. 

The former dictator was sentenced to death alongside Atef Najib, the former head of political security in southern Syria’s Deraa province, who was reportedly tried in person. 

More to follow.