{"id":131043,"date":"2026-08-11T19:04:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T14:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=131043"},"modified":"2026-08-11T19:04:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T14:04:26","slug":"ousted-syrian-president-bashar-al-assad-sentenced-to-death-in-absentia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/131043\/","title":{"rendered":"Ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad sentenced to death in absentia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Riyadh(National Times)- A Syrian court on Tuesday sentenced former ruler\u00a0Bashar al-Assad\u00a0<\/a>to death in absentia, after convicting him over charges of \u201cwar crimes\u201d and \u201ccrimes against humanity\u201d during the country\u2019s civil war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ruling against Assad, who fled <\/a>with his family to Moscow as rebels closed in on Damascus in December 2024, is the first under the transitional authorities who this year began trying figures from the former government, both in person and in absentia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assad, who was born in 1965, became president in 2000 after his father Hafez died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shaped in its early years by the Iraq war<\/a> and crisis in Lebanon, Assad\u2019s rule was defined by civil war, which spiralled out of the 2011 Arab Spring, when Syrians demanding democracy took to the streets<\/a>, to be met with deadly force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Syrian court also sentenced<\/a> Assad-era official Atif Najib to death for \u201ccrimes against humanity\u201d committed when he was head of political security in Daraa province, the cradle of the country\u2019s 2011 uprising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The court convicted Najib, a cousin of Bashar and arrested<\/a> in January last year, of crimes including murder, \u201cthe intentional killing of children under 15\u201d, and \u201ctorture leading to death\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The acts attributed to him are \u201ccrimes against humanity\u201d, the court said as it handed down \u201cthe harshest punishment against him, which is the death penalty\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Riyadh(National Times)- A Syrian court on Tuesday sentenced former ruler\u00a0Bashar al-Assad\u00a0to death in absentia, after convicting him over charges of \u201cwar crimes\u201d and \u201ccrimes against humanity\u201d during the country\u2019s civil war. The ruling against Assad, who fled with his family to Moscow as rebels closed in on Damascus in December 2024, is the first under the transitional […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest_news","entry"],"yoast_head":"\nOusted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad sentenced to death in absentia - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/131043\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad sentenced to death in absentia - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Riyadh(National Times)- A Syrian court on Tuesday sentenced former ruler\u00a0Bashar al-Assad\u00a0to death in absentia, after convicting him over charges of \u201cwar crimes\u201d and \u201ccrimes against humanity\u201d during the country\u2019s civil war. 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