Less than two years after Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad was overthrown, and following a trial in absentia, Syrian courts have ordered his execution.
The exile and his brother Maher both found asylum in Russia. Neither is likely to be unduly worried by the prospect of extradition, although their cousin Atef Najib, the former political security chief in the province of Daraa, who was in the dock, was also sentenced to death. Najib was held responsible for overseeing a brutal crackdown and the torture of 15 teenagers that triggered first an uprising and then the 14-year civil war that followed the crushing of the 2011 Arab Spring. He has 30 days to appeal.
Al-Assad was sentenced for the “premeditated and intentional murder of more than one person and of children”, along with torture, arbitrary arrest and crimes against humanity. His sentence was greeted with jubilation on the streets of Damascus by crowds impatient for some form of accountability.
Al-Assad, who was born in 1965, became president in 2000 after his father Hafez died. Despite an early reputation as a liberal reformer, his regime will be remembered for its war on his own people, particularly minorities, his torture chambers, disappearances, mass jailings and chemical attacks on civilians.
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He can count himself lucky that he has not faced street justice like Romania’s Ceausescu or Libya’s Gadafy, but the sentence will be a reminder to dictators the world over that eventually even the most solidly entrenched despot is likely to be made answerable.
In another sign of the shifting sands in the Middle East, reflecting both the decline of autocracy and a hankering after democratic norms, on Tuesday Lebanon became the first Arab country to abolish the death penalty. Although it has observed an unofficial moratorium on executions since January 2004, the country’s parliament voted, with only Hizbullah representatives opposed, to do away with capital punishment, sparing the 85 still on death row.
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