A cousin of Bashar al-Assad has become the first high-ranking official of Syria's ousted dictator to stand trial, being formally charged at a criminal court in Damascus on Sunday.
There are hopes that the trial of former Brigadier Atef Najib, which began with a hearing in late April, will bring some reckoning for the atrocities committed under Assad’s brutal rule.
Assad was overthrown during an offensive by Islamist militias in December 2024 and fled into exile in Russia. He is believed to be living with his family between Moscow and the United Arab Emirates. Assad is also facing charges in the trial.
As the former head of security in the southern city of Daraa, Najib is accused of crimes against the Syrian people, including “systematic mass murder” and arbitrary arrests. It was in Daraa in 2011 that the peaceful uprisings against Assad began, after teenagers sprayed anti-government graffiti on the walls of their school and were arrested.
The protests were brutally suppressed and ultimately led to a civil war resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths, massive destruction and unprecedented violence against the population. Hundreds of thousands of people ended up in prisons and many were tortured or disappeared. Many relatives of victims see the trial as a first step towards justice. Some of the relatives are also present at the trial.
Others, however, see it merely as an attempt to appease the population and foreign partners. Critics emphasize that Syrian law does not recognize war crimes or crimes against humanity as criminal offences.
