00:00Who are the figures of the Assad regime sentenced to death in Syria?
00:03Several prominent figures from the Assad regime have been sentenced by a court in Damascus
00:06over killings, torture and other crimes over the course of the civil war.
00:11But who exactly are they?
00:12Bashar al-Assad, son of President Hafiz al-Assad, Bashar ruled Syria from 2000 to 2024, overseeing
00:19a brutal repressive regime and a deadly civil war from 2011 that killed hundreds of thousands.
00:24He is currently in exile in Moscow, having been granted asylum after fleeing Syria in
00:282024.
00:29Atif Najib, Assad's cousin and Dara'a's political security chief, he became one of
00:33the most notorious figures of the regime after the detention and alleged torture of school
00:37children who sprayed anti-regime graffiti in Dara'a.
00:40This event and the subsequent protests and crackdowns helped spark Syria's 2011 revolution
00:44and subsequent civil war.
00:46Mahar al-Assad, younger brother of Bashar and commander of the Syrian army's elite 4th
00:50armoured division, he helped lead the crackdown on the 2011 uprisings and later became associated
00:54with some of the Syrian war's most notorious abuses.
00:57He also fled to Russia following the fall of the regime in 2024.
01:00Fahad Jassim al-Frij, Frij became the chief of the general staff in 2011 and then defence
01:05minister from 2012 to 2018.
01:07He was placed on the European sanctions list in 2012 for his role in suppressing popular
01:11protests and directing attacks on civilians.
01:14Muhammad Ayman Ayush, Ayush oversaw the Hamid al-Tahir checkpoint in Dara'a.
01:19He has been accused of torture and of the disappearance of young men from the area.
01:22Lulay al-Ali, al-Ali was the Assad regime's military intelligence chief in Dara'a, implicated
01:27in violent repression of protesters in 2011.
01:29Later reporting also linked him closely to narco-trafficking operations that substantially
01:34contributed to sustained regime control.
01:36Qusay Ibrahim Mahoub, a senior air force intelligence officer, he is accused of orchestrating the violent
01:41repression of protesters in Dara'a in 2011, with US authorities linking his actions to hundreds
01:46of civilian deaths and serious human rights violations.
01:48Wafiq Saleh Nasser, Nasser was a senior military intelligence official who headed the services
01:53branch in Suweda.
01:54In 2011, he participated in the first brutal crack-dance in Dara'a and was sanctioned for
01:59his actions by the EU in August that year.
02:01He then oversaw a system of repression spanning torture, kidnappings, assassinations, sectarian
02:06manipulation and smuggling networks across southern Syria.
02:09He is also known to have played a prominent role in trade deals with ISIS, which controlled
02:13the Badia region near Suweda.
02:15Hilal Faris Al-Assimi Al-Assimi was head of the Special Tasks Unit and the Ministry of
02:19the Interior.
02:20Then he was deputy police commander in the Assad regime's government.
02:23He has been accused by witnesses and activists of helping direct the violent suppression of
02:27Syria's 2011 uprising, including the deadly crackdowns in Dara'a.
02:31Although the court ruling marks a historic attempt to hold senior figures of the Assad era accountable,
02:36only Atif Najib was present in court and remains in Syrian custody.
02:40The Shah al-Assad and the other defendants were sentenced in absentia, meaning that for
02:44many victims and their families, justice remains incomplete.
02:47pain
02:48of the
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