Syria puts first Assad-era official on trial in Damascus

Syria has begun its first public trial of officials who served under longtime leader Bashar al-Assad, 15 years after the start of the civil war.

Trial proceedings opened in Damascus on Sunday for Atef Najib, the former head of political security in southern Syria’s Deraa province.

He is accused of overseeing a violent crackdown on protesters there during the 2011 uprising, and faces charges related to “crimes against the Syrian people”, according to Syria’s state-run news agency, SANA.

Najib, who is a cousin of al-Assad, was the sole defendant in court for Sunday’s preparatory session of the trial set to continue next month.

Charged in their absence are Al-Assad and his brother, Maher, former commander of the Syrian military’s 4th Armoured Division. Along with other former high-ranking security officials also charged in absentia, they are accused of killings, torture, extortion and drug trafficking.

Crowds gathered outside the court on Sunday in celebration, as families of victims, including some from Deraa, attended the session.

Speaking to Al Jazeera Mubasher, a spokesman for Syria’s Justice Ministry said holding the trial in public was important to ensure transparency and judicial independence as part of the transitional justice process.

Syrians pack the Palace of Justice in Damascus as Atef Najib, former head of political security in Deraa, attends a trial session, April 26 [Khalil Ashawi/Reuters]

Najib oversaw political security in Deraa when teenagers who scrawled antigovernment graffiti on a school wall in Deraa were arrested and tortured, in a case that became a catalyst for the broader uprising.

Further protests were met by a brutal government crackdown and spiralled into a 14-year civil war that ended with al-Assad’s overthrow in December 2024 in a lightning rebel offensive. Al-Assad then fled to Russia, and most members of his inner circle have also escaped Syria.