The Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus also sentenced Assad’s younger brother, Maher al-Assad, and his maternal cousin Atef Najib to death in connection with crimes committed during the conflict, which is estimated to have killed about half a million people.
Judge Fakhareddine al-Aryan said during a session broadcast on state television that Bashar al-Assad had used government institutions to carry out war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The verdict marks a significant moment for Syria, where the Assad family ruled for roughly five decades before Bashar al-Assad was ousted in December 2024 following a rapid rebel offensive.
Assad and Maher fled to Russia after the collapse of the government and were granted political asylum. Syria’s new authorities have since called on Moscow to hand the two men over, but they remain outside the country and were sentenced in absentia.
Najib, a former Syrian army brigadier general, was present in court. He previously headed the Political Security Branch in Daraa province in southern Syria, where anti-government protests erupted in 2011.
His role in the crackdown on early demonstrations has made him one of the highest-ranking former regime officials to face trial. The unrest began after teenagers were arrested and tortured for writing anti-government graffiti on a school wall in Daraa. The incident helped trigger wider protests against Assad’s government.
The demonstrations were met with a government crackdown and eventually developed into a prolonged civil war.
Najib had been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in April 2011. He was later detained by Syrian authorities and brought before the court.
Maher al-Assad previously commanded the Syrian military’s 4th Armored Division. Syrian opposition activists have accused the unit and its leadership of killings, torture, extortion and drug trafficking, as well as operating detention facilities.
The death sentences represent the first such judgments against the former Syrian leadership since the end of Assad family rule.
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