The first trial session in absentia of the ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his brother Maher began on Sunday in Damascus, in addition to the trial in the presence of a number of security and military officials, including Atef Najib.

Published on: 04/26/2026 - 14:48

On Sunday, the first trial session was held in absentia for the ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his brother Maher, along with a number of symbols of the former regime. A judicial source, who was reluctant to reveal his name, reported that “the first session of the transitional justice sessions begins the process of preparing for the trial in absentia of the criminal Bashar al-Assad and his brother Maher, in addition to the trial in the presence of a number of security and military officials, the first of whom is the criminal Atef Najeeb,” the former security official who was arrested in January 2025.

Najib came handcuffed to the courtroom in Damascus. He is a relative of Bashar al-Assad. He previously headed the Political Security Branch in Daraa (south), where popular protests erupted in 2011. He is considered responsible for a campaign of repression and widespread arrests in the governorate.

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Criminal Court Judge Fakhr al-Din al-Erian began the session by saying, “Today we begin the first transitional justice trials in Syria... which includes an arrested accused, who is in the dock, and includes defendants fleeing from justice,” before successively reciting the names of other symbols from the era of the previous regime.

The judge announced that this Sunday session was dedicated to “administrative and legal procedures for preparation,” and announced a second trial session for May 10.

For his part, the judicial source confirmed that the in-person trials will include Wassim al-Assad, a relative of the ousted president, former Mufti Badr al-Din Hassoun, and other military and security officials who were successively arrested by the new authorities over the past months and who will be tried on charges of committing atrocities against Syrians.

According to the Syrian Code of Criminal Procedure, the trial in absentia allows the Criminal Court to proceed with the procedures for prosecuting accused persons who are not arrested or fugitive, after notifying them and giving them due notice. If they do not appear, the court can consider the charges against them and personal compensation claims, and issue a judgment in absentia at the end of the process.

France 24/AFP

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