Syrian court begins proceedings against Assad and allies

A Syrian court conducted the first hearing Sunday in the trial of ousted ruler Bashar al-Assad and senior figures from his government, one of whom appeared in person.

Assad and his brother Maher have fled Syria and will be tried in absentia, but one of their relatives, former security official Atif Najib, was in the dock in handcuffs.

"Today we begin the first trials of transitional justice in Syria," judge Fakhr al-Din al-Aryan declared as he opened the session.

"This includes a defendant in custody, present in the dock, as well as defendants who have fled justice," he said.

A judicial source, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the proceedings marked the beginning of preparations for the trials of Assad, his brother and other prominent figures, such as Najib.

Najib, who was arrested in January 2025 in the aftermath of the collapse of the Assad government, appeared in court in Damascus in a striped prison jersey.

He previously headed Syria's political security branch in the southern province of Daraa, where Syria's 2011 uprising first erupted.

He is accused of having led a broad campaign of repression and arrests there.

Syria's 13-year civil war killed more than half a million people and displaced millions of others. Tens of thousands of people disappeared, some into the country's brutal prison system.

Syria's new authorities have repeatedly vowed to provide justice and accountability for Assad-era atrocities, while activists and the international community have emphasised the importance of transitional justice in the war-ravaged country.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on X on Sunday that justice would remain "a major goal that the state and its institutions strive to achieve".

The judge did not question Najib during Sunday's session, which was dedicated to "preparatory administrative and legal procedures", and announced that a second hearing would be held on May 10.

The judicial source said in-person trials will include Wassim al-Assad, another relative of the ousted president, former grand mufti Ahmed Badreddin Hassoun, as well as military and security officials arrested by the new authorities in recent months.

Assad fled to Moscow with only a handful of confidants as Islamist-led forces closed in on Damascus in December 2024, abandoning senior officials and security officers, some of whom reportedly went abroad or took refuge in the coastal heartland of Assad's Alawite minority.