Syrian court sentences Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia
Transitional authorities handed down the verdict for war crimes and crimes against humanity; cousin Atef Najib also convicted.
A Syrian court today sentenced former president Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia after finding him guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the civil war.
In the same trial, the court also sentenced his maternal cousin, Atef Najib, to death. The court holds Najib responsible for the repression in the southern province of Daraa that preceded the 2011 uprising and the subsequent civil war.
Details about the accused
Najib heard the verdict in court, behind bars and wearing prison clothes. He is a former brigadier general in the Syrian army, and in 2011 he headed the political security department in Daraa province.
Assad and his brother Maher fled to Russia after rebel forces entered Damascus in December 2014. Najib was later arrested and became one of the highest-ranking officials to be tried.
The sentence against Assad is the first such ruling since the Syrian transitional authorities began this year to try former regime officials, both those in custody and those tried in absentia.
Photo: EPA/Abedin Taherkenareh
