Syria: Court charges Bashar Assad's cousin Atef Najib with war crimes amid 2011 uprising
Key takeaways
- Syria's judiciary has charged Atef Najib with acts "amounting to war crimes" as Bashar Assad's cousin is accused of orchestrating a crackdown on 2011 protests that subsequently degenerated into a decade of civil war.
- https://p.dw.com/p/5DYBp Bashar Assad is thought to be in hiding in Russia, his cousin is the most prominent suspect in the dock in Damascus Image: Izz Aldien Alqasem/Anadolu Agency/IMAGOAdvertisement.
- Former President Assad, his brother Maher and several other senior officials face trial in absentia.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
Syria's judiciary has charged Atef Najib with acts "amounting to war crimes" as Bashar Assad's cousin is accused of orchestrating a crackdown on 2011 protests that subsequently degenerated into a decade of civil war.
https://p.dw.com/p/5DYBp Bashar Assad is thought to be in hiding in Russia, his cousin is the most prominent suspect in the dock in Damascus Image: Izz Aldien Alqasem/Anadolu Agency/IMAGOAdvertisement. A judge in Damascus on Sunday detailed the charges against Atef Najib, a cousin of Bashar Assad and formerly a senior security official in Syria, as the first trial of Assad-era officials gets moving.
Former President Assad, his brother Maher and several other senior officials face trial in absentia. They are believed to have fled to Russia as the former Syrian government fell in December 2024.