Syria’s first public trial of al-Assad-era officials opens in Damascus

The first public trial in Syria of officials linked to the rule of former President Bashar al-Assad opened in Damascus Sunday.Atef Najib, a former Syrian army brigadier general who was head of the Political Security Branch in southern Syria’s Daraa province under al-Assad and who is also a cousin of the former president, appeared in the courtroom to face charges related to “crimes against the Syrian people,” state-run news agency SANA reported.Najib was in that position in 2011 when teenagers who scrawled anti-government graffiti on a school wall in Daraa were arrested and tortured. The case became a catalyst for mass protests against the repressive policies of al-Assad’s government security forces.The protests were met by a brutal government crackdown and spiraled into a 14-year civil war that ended with al-Assad’s ouster in December 2024 in a lightning offensive led by armed oppositiob forces. Al-Assad fled to Russia, while most members of his inner circle also escaped Syria.Al-Assad

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