Syria’s toppled leader Bashar al-Assad, who fled to Russia after rebel forces overran the capital Damascus in December 2024, has been sentenced to death in absentia for crimes during the country’s 14-year conflict that left about half a million people dead.
The sentences are a landmark, marking the first judicial action against key ruling figures from the country’s previous government, whose five decades in power ended less than two years ago. Here’s a look at what Assad and his relatives were accused of, how the civil war in Syria unfolded and ended, and the challenges it continues to face.
What are the charges against Assad and his relatives?
The Damascus Criminal Court found that Assad, who was toppled in 2024 and now lives in exile in Russia, guilty of premeditated murder, torture and crimes against humanity, Al Jazeera reported.
“Bashar Assad used state agencies to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity,” said judge Fakhareddine al-Aryan during a court session that was aired live on state TV.
Maher, also now living in Russia, was also convicted in absentia of premediated murder and torture, the report said. He was a former commander of the Syrian military’s 4th Armored Division — which Syrian opposition activists have accused of killings, torture, extortion and drug trafficking, in addition to running its own detention centers, AP reported.
Both had fled to Russia after a lightning offensive by rebel group Hay’et Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) overwhelmed government forces in December 2024 in just around 14 days.
Also sentenced to death was Assad’s maternal cousin Atef Najib for “crimes against humanity”. Unlike the other two, who found political asylum in Russia, Najib was detained and became one of the highest-ranking officials to be put on trial.
Najib is a former Syrian army brigadier general who was head of the Political Security Branch in southern Syria’s Daraa province under Assad in 2011.
In that role, he led the crackdown in the southern province that led to the uprising and later the civil war. Amid tight security, Najib stood inside a cage wearing a prisoner’s uniform as the judge read the sentence, AP reported. His crimes include murder, “the intentional killing of children under 15” and “torture leading to death”, according to the court, Al Jazeera reported.
How did the Syrian conflict begin?
Since 1971, Syria was under the control of Hafez al-Assad, the all-powerful president seen by many as a dictator. After Hafez died in 2000, his son, Bashar, took over. In 2011, the Arab Spring began, resulting in a number of movements calling for authoritarian leaders to be toppled across West Asia. Syria would not remain untouched.
Assad belongs to the Alawite community, a sect of Shia Islam. Many in Syria believed that while Sunnis were the majority, power and resources were concentrated in the hands of the Alawaites. After coming to power, Assad had opened up the economy, but the gains had largely been limited to the elites.
During the tenure of Assad’s cousin Najib, more than a dozen teenagers who scrawled anti-government graffiti on a school wall in Daraa were arrested and tortured. The case became a catalyst for mass protests against the repressive policies of Assad’s security forces. Price rise and unemployment were also among the major issues.
Soon enough, these protests morphed into an armed conflict as defectors from the army turned rebels. And unlike the protests, the civil war reflected sectarian divisions.
Who was fighting whom, and why?
The leader of the group that captured Damascus was the HTS, led by Abu Mohammad al-Jolani — formerly a sanctioned al-Qaeda terrorist with a $10-million bounty on his head.
The HTS was founded in 2011 as Jabhat al-Nusra, the al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria. In 2016, it broke away to form the Jabhat Fateh al-Shaam, standing for the liberation of al-Shaam, or the Levant (the sub-region of the Middle East lying near the Mediterranean Sea, including Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Palestine). The HTS wanted to overthrow Assad and establish a Sunni-Islamic rule.
The other significant players were the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a collection of Kurdish militias that sought greater autonomy and rights for the Kurds. They were not a major enemy of Assad. Then there was the Turkey-backed Syrian National Army, opposing both Assad and the Kurds.
Other countries were drawn in to the conflict. The governments of Shia-majority Iran and Iraq, and Lebanon-based Hezbollah, supported Assad. Russia, too, supported Assad.
The US and Turkey backed the anti-Assad forces, though Turkey’s dispute is mainly with the Kurds, including those within its own borders.
The rebels had taken control of areas to the northeast and northwest of the country. However, Assad was in control of a large section of Syria. This was made possible thanks to a major offensive in 2015, when Russia provided air support and Assad’s forces, with the help of Iran, beat back the rebels. Since 2020, the civil war had remained a frozen conflict, till the anti-government forces mounted a quick and surprisingly effective campaign from November 27, 2024.
Syria under Assad was a staunch supporter of Palestine, and thus Israel, too, has conducted strikes over it.
How did the Syrian civil war end?
The rebels had taken control of areas to the northeast and northwest of the country. However, Assad was in control of a large section of Syria. This was made possible thanks to a major offensive in 2015, when Russia provided air support and Assad’s forces, with the help of Iran, beat back the rebels.
Since 2020, the civil war had remained a frozen conflict, till the anti-government forces mounted a quick and surprisingly effective campaign from November 27.
With Iran, Hezbollah, and Russia all distracted with their own wars in Gaza and Lebanon, and Ukraine, respectively, Assad was missing critical support. As the rebels ran over the country, they met little effective resistance from the official Syrian Army.
After his forces captured the capital, al-Jolani — now going by Ahmed al-Sharaa — took over as president. In the process, he rebranded himself as a modern, soft-speaking, linen-suit wearing leader.
The challenges ahead for Syria
In November 2025, al-Sharaa became the first Syrian president in 80 years to visit the White House, where he received US President Donald Trump’s stamp of approval. “I think this leader can do it,” Trump said.
Al-Sharaa has the unenviable task of leading a country that is fractured on ethnic lines and left economically impoverished by the lengthy civil war. While the establishment of the National Commissions for Transitional Justice (NCTJ) and for Missing Persons last year was hailed as a welcome step, much more still needs to be done.
Since the fall of the Assad regime, there has been widespread ethnic violence, with Sunni groups aligned to the new regime targeting minority communities, notably, Shia Alawites (Assad’s community), the Druze, and Kurds.
Al-Sharaa has been criticised for not doing enough to control this violence. Certain actions have been viewed as explicitly fanning tensions: The failure of Syria’s interim constitution to guarantee Kurdish rights is being seen as a betrayal by the Kurds, who, too, fought Assad.
Human Rights Watch has criticised the NCTJ for focussing on the Assad regime, and overlooking war crimes committed by others, including al-Sharaa’s own HTS.
With al-Sharaa as President, Syria has also been trying to distance itself from Iran’s network and gain international legitimacy after decades of intertwined connections with Hezbollah and Iran.
There are clear difficulties in doing so, such as the leader’s own past role as a former al-Qaeda commander. His attempts at portraying himself as a leader focused on rebuilding Syria and making the nation a serious international player, and in seeking out the US as an ally, come against this backdrop.
During the current West Asia conflict, the Iranian military has also launched attacks on US military sites in Syria.
Bashar Assad, right, and his brother Maher Assad stand during the funeral of their father, former President Hafez Assad, in Damascus, Syria, June 13, 2000. (AP Photo, File) 
Atef Najib, former head of the Political Security Branch in the Daraa area during Bashar Assad’s rule, sits in the defendants’ cage during a trial session at the Palace of Justice in Damascus, Syria, April 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed), File)
Share
