A Syrian court has sentenced former President Bashar al-Assad and his brother Maher al-Assad to death in absentia, and separately sentenced their cousin Atef Najib to death, according to a Tuesday evening report. The charges include premeditated murder, murder of children, torture, and arbitrary detention. Assad and his brother remain in Moscow; Najib is in state custody.
Tuesday evening reports from a Syrian monitoring source confirm that a Damascus court has sentenced former President Bashar al-Assad and his brother Maher al-Assad to death in absentia, while also issuing a separate death sentence against their cousin Atef Najib, who is in state custody. The charges include premeditated murder, murder of children, torture, and arbitrary detention.
The development expands on reports that emerged earlier Tuesday. Initial reports at 11:25 a.m. Jerusalem stated that a Damascus court had sentenced Assad to death in absentia, then quickly expanded to include Maher al-Assad and other regime figures. By 12:28 p.m., The Zioneer reported that the same court had also targeted Maher al-Assad and several former regime officers. Tuesday evening's update adds that Najib, a former regime interior ministry official, received the same penalty while in state custody.
The sentences come as Syria's post-Assad government continues prosecuting former regime officials. Assad and his brother remain in Moscow; Najib is held in Syrian custody.
6 developments
Source and signal
- Open-source intake