Syria: Court charges Bashar Assad's cousin Atef Najib with war crimes amid 2011 uprising

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.

Najib, the former head of political security in the south Syrian province of Daraa, where peaceful protests erupted in 2011, is the most senior former regime member facing trial in person. The trial opened last month. 

What charges does Najib face and why? 

Judge Fakhr al-Din al-Aryan read out the charges on Sunday, as state television aired part of the session. 

"The accusations against you relate to events in Daraa province in early 2011, when the peaceful [protest] movement was met with an excessive use of force," Aryan said. 

Many trace the uprising back to the March 15, 2011 arrest of 15 students accused of writing anti-government slogans on the walls of their school. This led to widespread protests and an increasingly violent crackdown on them.

This took place amid the backdrop of the so-called Arab Spring and pro-democracy or anti-autocrat demonstrations in a number of Muslim countries. 

"As head of the political security branch then, you held direct and joint leadership responsibility for systematic acts that targeted civilians, including killing, torture and arbirtrary detention," the judge said. 

He listed alleged crimes including the arrest and torture of children and opening fire on a sit-in at a mosque in Daraa, as well as fatal torture in detention facilities run by his security forces. 

"You were the ultimate authority in Daraa province and hold direct responsibility for issuing orders to kill, arrest and torture... and for participating with political, security and military leaders in an organized hierarchical structure in committing these grave violations," the judge said to former Brigadeer Najib. 

According to state media, the court later heard statements from Najib and witnesses, after the judge had halted media coverage of the proceedings. 

Assad tried in absentia as Syria charges ex-regime members

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How and when did Assad's regime fall? 

More than 13 years of brutal civil war, involving various factions and fighting on multiple fronts, ensued after the 2011 unrest in Daraa. 

For some time, it appeared that the Assad regime had more or less stabilized the situation and regained the upper hand, despite having lost control of much of its territory and facing open rebellion in parts of the country. 

But in late 2024, an Islamist group backed by Turkey that can trace its roots back to the al-Nusra Front, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), made a lightning advance towards Damascus. Syria's military apparatus rapidly crumbled and Assad fled that December. 

Ahmed al-Sharaa is now interim president of the country. He is in the process of normalizing his relations with the international community and negotiating the end of the sanctions he used to face. 

He had come under pressure in recent months, more than a year after taking power, to accelerate the legal proceedings against former regime members — even if many of them are either deceased or no longer in Syria. 

Syria plans for presidential elections within five years of Assad's fall.

Edited by: Saim Dušan Inayatullah