A criminal court in Damascus sentenced ousted Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad to death on Tuesday. Assad, who is living in exile in Russia, was convicted of crimes against humanity committed during Syria's civil war.
The Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus found Assad guilty of premeditated murder and crimes against humanity, while Atef Najib, his cousin and former political security chief in the southern province of Daraa, was convicted of premeditated murder and torture. Syrian media focused heavily on Najib's sentence because, unlike the former president, he had been arrested and was present for his trial.
Syrian prosecutors had also sought to convict Bashar al-Assad's brother Maher al-Assad of murder, torture, arbitrary detention and wasting public funds, and had requested the death penalty for him as well.
According to Syria's state-run SANA news agency, the public prosecutor had asked the court to convict Najib and the other fugitives named in the case, including Bashar al-Assad and Maher al-Assad, of murder, torture, arbitrary detention and wasting public funds, and to impose the maximum penalty of death. The prosecution said the evidence in the case was consistent and interconnected.
Najib is a cousin of former President Bashar al-Assad. He previously served as head of the Political Security Branch in Daraa province and has been held directly responsible for the campaigns of repression and arrests there following the outbreak of the Syrian uprising in 2011, most notably the arrest of a group of children in Daraa in March of that year.
