A Syrian court held this Sunday, April 26, the first hearing in the trial against ousted President Bashar al-Assad and senior officials of his former government, according to state media. Assad and his brother Maher al-Assad, who fled Syria, are being tried in absentia, while former security official Atif Najib appeared in court in handcuffs.
First modification: 04/27/2026 - 04:14
Bashar al-Assad and his brother Maher fled Syria and will be tried in absentia, but one of their relatives, former security official Atif Najib, was handcuffed, in person, in the dock on April 26.
"Today we begin the first transitional justice trials in Syria," declared Judge Fakhr al-Din al-Aryan as he opened the session.
"This includes an accused who is in custody, present in the dock, as well as accused who have fled from justice," he added.
A judicial source, who spoke to the AFP news agency on condition of anonymity, said the trial marked the beginning of preparations for trials against Assad, his brother and other prominent figures, such as Najib.
Najib, arrested in January 2025 after the collapse of Assad's government, appeared in court in Damascus wearing a striped prison uniform.
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Previously, he headed Syria's political security branch in the southern province of Daraa, where the 2011 Syrian uprising broke out.
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He is accused of having led a broad campaign of repression and arrests in the area.
The 13-year Syrian civil war left more than half a million people dead and millions more displaced. Tens of thousands of people disappeared, some of them into the country's brutal prison system.
The new Syrian authorities have repeatedly vowed to deliver justice and hold accountable for Assad-era atrocities, while activists and the international community have highlighted the importance of transitional justice in the war-torn country.
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The de facto Syrian president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, declared on Sunday that Justice will remain "a primary objective that the State and its institutions strive to achieve."
The judge did not question Najib during the session, dedicated to "preparatory administrative and legal formalities", and announced that a second hearing would be held on May 10.
According to the judicial source, the in-person trials will include Wassim al-Assad, another relative of the deposed former president, former grand mufti Ahmed Badreddin Hassoun, as well as military and security officials detained by the new authorities in recent months.
Assad fled to Moscow with only a handful of confidants as Islamist forces approached Damascus in December 2024, abandoning senior officials and security officials, some of whom reportedly went into exile or refuge in the coastal region, the birthplace of Assad's Alawite minority.
With AFP
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