{"id":38935,"date":"2026-08-11T17:04:36","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T12:04:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=38935"},"modified":"2026-08-11T17:04:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T12:04:36","slug":"bashar-al-assad-convicted-of-crimes-against-humanity-sentenced-to-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=38935","title":{"rendered":"Bashar al-Assad Convicted of Crimes Against Humanity, Sentenced to Death"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5749991\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5749991\" class=\"wp-image-5749991 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/am14.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/08\/18-1.jpg\" alt=\"People celebrate in the streets of Syria after former dictator Bashar al-Assad, inset, is sentenced to death. Credit main image: Ghaith Alsayed\/AP Photo\" width=\"1250\" height=\"720\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-5749991\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">People celebrate in the streets of Syria after former dictator Bashar al-Assad, inset, is sentenced to death. Credit main image: Ghaith Alsayed\/AP Photo<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Nearly two years after <strong>Bashar al-Assad<\/strong>&#8216;s brutal, bloody reign over Syria came to an end, a Syrian court convicted the disgraced ruler in absentia of crimes against humanity, sentencing him and his younger brother to death.<\/p>\n<p>The Tuesday ruling against Assad, 60, was the first from a Syrian court <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/opinion\/tulsi-gabbard-wanted-to-protect-bashar-al-assad-americans-cant-trust-her-to-protect-them\/\">against the dictator and his family<\/a>, which ruled for five decades until a December 2024 rebel uprising.<\/p>\n<p>The court proceedings, which lasted four months, were aired live on state television,<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/syria-assad-death-trial-d4c486b5d39bbdb41108112b0ddc8e79\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> the Associated Press reported.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cBashar Assad used state agencies to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity,\u201d said Judge <strong>Fakhareddine al-Aryan<\/strong>, according to the AP.<\/p>\n<p>Assad&#8217;s younger brother, <strong>Maher al-Assad<\/strong>, a former Syrian military official, was also sentenced to death during the proceeding.<\/p>\n<p>The two Assad brothers escaped to Russia when their heinous regime \u2014 which killed more than 200,000 civilians over 14 years, including more than 23,000 children, <a href=\"https:\/\/snhr.org\/blog\/2024\/12\/20\/summary-of-the-assad-regimes-crimes-against-the-syrian-people-over-the-last-14-years\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according to the Syrian Human Rights Network<\/a> \u2014 finally collapsed.<\/p>\n<p>The pair were given political asylum but Syria&#8217;s new leaders have asked Russia to return the two former leaders to the country.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Maher al-Assad<\/strong>, 58, once lead the regime&#8217;s Fourth Armoured Division \u2014 a group which cracked down on protesters and allegedly lead a drug trade that enriched his older brother, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/syria-sentences-absent-bashar-al-assad-death-over-killings-torture-2026-08-11\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Reuters reported.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Atef Najib<\/strong>, a cousin of the brothers who served as a security official in the southern part of the country, was the only family member to be tried in person and was given the same sentence, according to reports.<\/p>\n<p>Clad in a prison uniform, Najib, 66, was kept in a cage during the sentencing, according to the AP.<\/p>\n<p>As word of the death sentence rippled through Syria, crowds gathered and celebrated \u2014 with many carrying photos of loved ones killed or taken by the Assad regime.<\/p>\n<p>One critic slammed the dramatic sentence as &#8220;performative&#8221; and said it did little to actually bring the Assads to justice.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There is a huge problem, which is that no one will hand over a criminal to a country that issues a death sentence. This will cut off the \u200broad to Assad, and many other criminals, \u200bbeing handed over to Syria,&#8221; <strong>Anwar \u2060al-Bunni<\/strong>, head of the Syrian Centre for Legal Studies and Research, told Reuters.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is performative justice, not transitional justice,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/news\/bashar-al-assad-convicted-of-crimes-against-humanity-sentenced-to-death\/\">Bashar al-Assad Convicted of Crimes Against Humanity, Sentenced to Death<\/a> first appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\">Mediaite<\/a>.<\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>People celebrate in the streets of Syria after former dictator Bashar al-Assad, inset, is sentenced to death. Credit main image: Ghaith Alsayed\/AP Photo Nearly two years after Bashar al-Assad&#8216;s brutal, bloody reign over Syria came to an end, a Syrian court convicted the disgraced ruler in absentia of crimes against humanity, sentencing him and his&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/am14.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/08\/18-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}