In the context of transitional justice, the first trials of prominent officials from the former Syrian regime will begin in Damascus on Sunday, after their arrest during the past months, amid widespread anticipation for the accountability of those accused of committing serious violations during the years of conflict. The sessions will open with the trial of Atef Najib, who was arrested in January 2025. Najib is a relative of the ousted President Bashar al-Assad, and previously headed the Political Security Branch in Daraa Governorate, where the spark of popular protests broke out in 2011, and he is considered responsible for a campaign of repression and widespread arrests there.

Published on: 04/25/2026 - 17:52

On Sunday, the Syrian authorities will begin the trial of a number of prominent figures associated with the previous regime, after their arrest over the past months. The sessions will open with the trial of former security official Atef Najib, according to what the French news agency reported from a source in the Ministry of Justice on Saturday.

The source explained that the first session of the trial of symbols of the former regime will begin on Sunday, and the opening session will include the trial of Naguib, who was arrested in January 2025.

Najib is a relative of ousted President Bashar al-Assad. He previously headed the Political Security Branch in Daraa Governorate (south), where the spark of popular protests broke out in 2011, and he is considered responsible for a massive campaign of repression and arrests there.

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The source indicated that Najib's trial "will be followed successively by the trial of Wassim al-Assad," who is also a relative of the ousted president, "and pilots who participated in bombing Syrian cities and towns" during the conflict, in addition to Amjad Youssef, who was arrested by the authorities on Friday, and who is the main accused of committing a massacre in the Tadamon neighborhood in Damascus in 2013, in which dozens of people were killed.

The new administration that came to power in December 2024 announces from time to time the arrest of military and security officials from the previous regime, who were involved in committing atrocities and crimes against Syrians during the years of conflict.

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The fate of tens of thousands of missing and detainees in Syria, and the mass graves in which the previous regime is believed to have buried detainees who died under torture, constitute one of the most prominent aspects of the Syrian tragedy after a conflict that caused the death of more than half a million people.

On his escape to Moscow on December 8, 2024, following the arrival of the opposition factions led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham to Damascus, Al-Assad took with him only a few people close to him, abandoning his aides and senior officers, a number of whom took refuge in neighboring countries.

Other officials took refuge in their towns and villages, according to what some of them reported.

On Friday, the Syrian Minister of Justice, Mazhar Al-Wais, published in a post on Ex that the Damascus Criminal Court “is preparing for the moment long awaited by the victims: the launch of public trials... of the cronies and criminals of the former regime, within the process of transitional justice.”

Activists, human rights organizations, and the international community stress the importance of achieving transitional justice in Syria after long years of war.

Anti-Assad protests broke out in Daraa, southern Syria, on March 15, 2011, after children who wrote slogans against the then Syrian president on the walls of their school were arrested and tortured by security forces.

Following the outbreak of protests, Atef Najib, who was held responsible for the crackdown in Daraa, was removed from his position.

In April 2011, the United States included him on the sanctions list on the grounds of “human rights violations.”

Wassim al-Assad, the cousin of the ousted president, was arrested in June 2025. He is one of the most prominent defendants accused of involvement in the drug trade during the previous regime.

The US Treasury Department imposed sanctions against him in 2023, saying he led a paramilitary unit and was a “central figure” in a regional drug trafficking network, supported by the previous regime.

France 24/AFP

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