The Criminal Court in Damascus sentenced Bashar al-Assad to death on Tuesday after finding him guilty of premeditated murder in connection with crimes during Syria’s civil war. Atef Najib was sentenced to death in the same ruling, and the court also found him guilty of premeditated murder and torture.
The decision turned a long-running wartime record into a formal death sentence. It also drew a line from crimes committed by Assad’s government in Deraa province in 2011 to crimes against humanity, making the case one of the rare legal judgments involving a former Syrian president.
Damascus ruling on Tuesday
The Criminal Court in Damascus issued the ruling on Tuesday. Bashar al-Assad was sentenced to death in absentia, which means the court delivered its judgment without his presence in the courtroom.
Atef Najib, identified as the former head of political security in southern Syria’s Deraa province, received the same punishment. The court said Najib’s conduct also met the threshold for premeditated murder and torture, placing him inside the same criminal ruling as Assad rather than in a separate proceeding.
Deraa province and Syria’s civil war
The court linked the case to crimes committed by Assad’s government in Deraa province in 2011. It said those acts amounted to crimes against humanity, the most serious finding in the ruling and the part that extends the case beyond ordinary wartime offenses.
For readers tracking the case inside Syria, the practical effect is narrow but important: the judgment sets out who the court blamed, what charges it accepted, and where the conduct took place. The ruling names Bashar al-Assad and Atef Najib directly, and it ties the crimes to southern Syria rather than leaving them as a general wartime accusation.
What the court leaves open
The record provided does not say how the death sentences would be carried out or whether any further court action will follow. That leaves the ruling standing as the key legal development for now: a death sentence for Bashar al-Assad in absentia, the same sentence for Atef Najib, and a finding that the 2011 conduct in Deraa province rose to crimes against humanity.
