Syria to begin trials of former Assad-era officials, starting with a former security chief accused of early uprising crackdowns, as part of transitional justice efforts
DAMASCUS: Trials of prominent figures from the rule of ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad are set to begin this weekend, a justice ministry official told AFP on Saturday, starting with a former security official.
“The first trial sessions for symbolic former Syrian regime figures will begin on Sunday” with Atif Najib, who was arrested in January of last year, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Najib is the former head of political security in south Syria’s Daraa province, the cradle of the country’s 2011 uprising, and is accused of orchestrating a crackdown there. He is also a cousin of the ousted leader.
The ministry official said trials would follow for Wassim al-Assad — another of the former president’s cousins — and Amjad Youssef, the main suspect in a 2013 massacre who was arrested this week, as well as “pilots who took part in bombing Syrian cities and towns”.
Syria’s civil war began with a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests and spiralled into a 13-year conflict that killed more than half a million people.
Assad’s forces pounded rebel-held areas, including with airstrikes and crude barrel bomb attacks, while tens of thousands of people disappeared, some into the country’s brutal prison system.
Since seizing power in December 2024, Syria’s new authorities have repeatedly announced the arrests of former officials, vowing to provide justice and accountability for Assad-era atrocities.
Assad fled to Russia with only a handful of confidants, abandoning senior officials and security officers, some of whom reportedly went abroad or took refuge in the coastal heartland of Assad’s Alawite minority.
Syrian Justice Minister Mazhar al-Wais said Friday on X that the Damascus criminal court was ready “for the moment that victims have long waited for: the start of public trials”, calling them “part of the transitional justice process”.
Rights groups, activists and the international community have repeatedly emphasised the importance of transitional justice in the war-ravaged country.
The protest movement against Assad began in Daraa on March 15, 2011, after 15 students were arrested for allegedly writing anti-government slogans on the city’s walls.
Residents said the students were tortured, leading to a protest to demand their release that ended in bloodshed.
Najib, blamed for the crackdown, was dismissed soon after. He was on a US Treasury sanctions list alongside other Syrian officials.
Wassim al-Assad was arrested last June. The US Treasury sanctioned him in 2023, saying he had led a paramilitary unit and was “a key figure in the regional drug trafficking network”.
