A Syrian court on Tuesday sentenced the country’s ousted President Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia, news agency AFP reported.
Political Context
Saddam Hussein was ousted after the United States invaded Iraq in 2003 under the George Bush administration. He was then sentenced to death by hanging in November 2006 by the Iraqi High Tribunal for crimes against humanity regarding the 1982 Dujail massacre. The ex-Iraqi President was executed on December 30, 2006. Ex- South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan was sentenced to death in 1996 for mutiny and treason relating to the 1979 coup and the Gwangju uprising. This is the first conviction since Syria’s transition government came into power after the fall of Assad’s regime in December 2024.
Also sentenced to death was the former political security chief of Deraa, Atef Najib, for systematically torturing and murdering during initial anti-government crackdowns. Start of the judicial process under the transitional government Start of the judicial process under the transitional government Even though the fugitive former president is still in exile in Russia, the transitional government assured that there will be international arrest warrants to help enforce the court’s mandate. Al-Sharaa made his mark in history by being the first Syrian leader in sixty years to speak at the UN General Assembly, asking for an end to global sanctions. The U.S. government withdrew the foreign terrorist designation from HTS in diplomatic reconfiguration amid the new government in Damascus.
In a criminal court sitting in Damascus, Syria’s former president, Bashar Al-Assad, was sentenced to death in absentia on Tuesday for premeditated murder, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
