‘Justice at last’: Syrians react to Assad death sentence

BREAKING: A Syrian court sentences ousted President Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia, along with former security official Atef Najib, as Syrians gather outside Damascus's Justice Palace to celebrate.

Bashar al-Assad has been sentenced to death. By a Syrian court, in Damascus, in absentia.

A year after his regime collapsed, judges handed down the sentence to the ousted president — and to Atef Najib, the security chief whose crackdown in Daraa lit the fuse back in 2011. Outside the Justice Palace, crowds gathered with photographs and flags, and plenty of people there called it the first real step toward transitional justice.

One problem. Assad isn't in Syria. He's in Moscow, living under Kremlin protection, and Russia has shown exactly zero appetite for handing over its guest. Which makes today's verdict symbolic — powerful, historic, but symbolic — until somebody actually puts him on a plane.

And that's the real question now.

This is Katya, reporting for HIT.

Source Read the original reporting at aljazeera.com