9 Executions and one life sentence verdicts target Assad’s regime elite

Death sentences and life imprisonment have targeted some of the most prominent figures at the top of Bashar al-Assad’s former regime, from the ousted president and his brother Maher to senior military and security officials associated with years of repression and war in Syria.

Nine figures were sentenced to death, including Bashar and Maher al-Assad, Wassim al-Assad, Atef Najib, Fahd Jassem al-Freij, Louay al-Ali, Qusay Mihoub, Wafiq Nasser, and Talal al-Aysami. Former Grand Mufti Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The rulings place figures who once stood at the highest levels of Syria’s political and security establishment under some of the broadest judicial proceedings since the fall of the regime, reopening questions of responsibility for violations and crimes committed against Syrians over the past decades.