A Syrian court has sentenced former President Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia after finding him guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the country’s civil war.

The verdict was delivered on Tuesday, with the court also sentencing Assad’s cousin, Atef Najib, to death for his role in the violent crackdown in Daraa province that helped trigger the uprising and the subsequent civil war.

Unlike Assad, who remains outside Syria, Najib was present in court and stood inside a cage dressed in a prisoner’s uniform as the judge pronounced the sentence.

Najib, a former Syrian army brigadier general, headed the political security branch in Daraa province in 2011, when security forces launched a crackdown on protesters in the southern city.

He was arrested in January last year and was convicted of several offences, including murder, the intentional killing of children under the age of 15 and torture resulting in death.

The court said it imposed the “harshest punishment,” the death penalty, on Najib for what it described as crimes against humanity.

The sentence against Assad represents the first major ruling by Syria’s transitional authorities against the former leader, as the new administration intensifies efforts to prosecute senior figures linked to his government, both in person and in absentia.

Assad fled Syria with his family to Moscow in December 2024 after Islamist-led forces advanced on Damascus, bringing his rule to an end following more than a decade of civil war.

Also in 2024, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) named Assad its “Corrupt Person of the Year,” citing allegations of widespread corruption linked to his regime.