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Syrian Court Launches Public Trial of Ex-Assad Officials, Including General in Custody
A Syrian court in Damascus began the first public trial of officials from Bashar Assad's era, with former security chief Atef Najib appearing in person on charges of crimes against the Syrian people. Assad and his brother Maher were charged in absentia. The proceedings stem from events in 2011 that sparked the country's 14-year civil war.
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A Syrian court in Damascus opened the first public trial of officials linked to the rule of former President Bashar Assad on Sunday, with Atef Najib, a former army brigadier general and cousin of Assad, appearing in handcuffs to face charges of crimes against the Syrian people.
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Najib, who served as head of the political security branch in southern Syria's Daraa province under Assad, was the only defendant arrested and present in person for the preparatory session. The trial, which will continue next month, also charged Assad and his brother Maher Assad, former commander of the Syrian military's 4th Armored Division, in absentia, along with a number of other former high-ranking security officials.
The judge announced, 'Today we begin the first trials of transitional justice in Syria,' as he opened the session. Crowds gathered outside the courthouse in Damascus on Sunday to celebrate. Najib held his position in Daraa in 2011 when teenagers who scrawled antigovernment graffiti on a school wall were arrested and tortured.
That incident became a catalyst for mass protests against the repressive policies of Assad's security forces, which were met by a brutal government crackdown. The protests spiraled into a 14-year civil war that left an estimated half a million people dead and ended with Assad's ouster in a lightning rebel offensive in December 2024.
Assad fled to Russia in December 2024, and most members of his inner circle escaped Syria.
Maher Assad, who fled Syria, oversaw the 4th Armored Division, which ran its own detention centers according to Syrian opposition activists. Charges against Najib relate to events in Daraa, including the killing of protesters. Ramez Abu Nabbout, one of the plaintiffs in the trial, said his brother, a father of three, was killed when security forces opened fire on protesters at Daraa’s Omari Mosque.
