{"id":20425,"date":"2026-04-26T18:12:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T17:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/?p=20425"},"modified":"2026-04-26T18:12:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T17:12:16","slug":"syria-puts-first-assad-era-official-on-trial-in-damascus-syrias-war-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/?p=20425","title":{"rendered":"Syria puts first Assad-era official on trial in Damascus | Syria’s War News"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Atef Najib, former head of political security in the Deraa province, is charged with \u2018crimes against the Syrian people\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Published On 26 Apr 2026<\/span>26 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

Trial proceedings opened in Damascus on Sunday for Atef Najib, the former head of political security in southern Syria\u2019s Deraa province.<\/p>\n

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He is accused of overseeing a violent crackdown on protesters there during the 2011 uprising, and faces charges related to \u201ccrimes against the Syrian people\u201d, according to Syria\u2019s state-run news agency, SANA.<\/p>\n

Najib, who is a cousin of al-Assad, was the sole defendant in court for Sunday\u2019s preparatory session of the trial set to continue next month.<\/p>\n

Charged in their absence are Al-Assad and his brother, Maher, former commander of the Syrian military\u2019s 4th Armoured Division. Along with\u00a0other former high-ranking security officials also charged in absentia, they are accused of killings, torture, extortion and drug trafficking.<\/p>\n

Crowds gathered outside the court on Sunday in celebration, as families of victims, including some from Deraa, attended the session.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Al Jazeera Mubasher, a spokesman for Syria\u2019s Justice Ministry said holding the trial in public was important to ensure transparency and judicial independence as part of the transitional justice process.<\/p>\n

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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]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Further protests were met by a brutal government crackdown and spiralled into a 14-year civil war that ended with al-Assad\u2019s overthrow in December 2024\u00a0in a lightning rebel offensive. Al-Assad then fled to Russia, and most members of his inner circle have also escaped Syria.<\/p>\n

The government of interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa has faced criticism over delays in launching a promised transitional justice process following the civil war, in which an estimated half a million people were killed. But authorities now appear to be moving more aggressively to prosecute officials linked to al-Assad.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Syrian authorities arrested former intelligence officer Amjad Yousef, the main suspect accused of the 2013 Tadamon massacre in Damascus, when at least 41 people were killed.<\/p>\n

In 2022, a leaked video appeared to show Youssef shooting civilians who had been detained and blindfolded, with their hands bound.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Atef Najib, former head of political security in the Deraa province, is charged with \u2018crimes against the Syrian people\u2019. Published On 26 Apr 202626 Apr 2026 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}