Syria court sentences Bashar al-Assad to death for crimes against humanity in absentia

BREAKING: A Syrian court has sentenced ousted president Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia for war crimes and crimes against humanity, along with his brother Maher and cousin Atef Najib, over the 14-year conflict that killed about half a million people.

A Syrian court has sentenced Bashar al-Assad to death. In absentia — because the man himself is in Moscow, and Moscow isn't answering the phone.

The charges: war crimes and crimes against humanity, across fourteen years of civil war that killed roughly half a million people. His brother Maher got the same sentence. So did their cousin Atef Najib — and Najib was actually there, standing in a cage in a prisoner's uniform while the judge read it out. He ran the crackdown in Daraa back in 2011, the one that lit the fuse on the whole war.

Assad and Maher fled to Russia when insurgents took Damascus in December 2024. This is the first ruling of its kind from Syria's transitional authorities — and it only bites if Moscow ever hands him over. I wouldn't hold my breath. Putin doesn't return houseguests.

So: Russia extradites Bashar al-Assad to Syria before the end of 2026.

This is Eben 3, reporting for HIT.

Source Read the original reporting at france24.com