00:00A disgraced former Syrian dictator who fled to Russia, convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death after earning
00:07the nickname The Butcher during his barbaric nearly 25-year rule, as Syrians gathered outside a Damascus courthouse to celebrate
00:15the landmark sentencing.
00:16Here's a look back at Bashar al-Assad's brutal regime in Syria and what led up to the 60-year
00:22-old dictator's monumental conviction and sentencing.
00:25A Syrian court in the country's capital of Damascus laid down a historic ruling on August 11th, convicting the country's
00:31former dictator, President Bashar al-Assad, with crimes against humanity and sentencing him to death.
00:38Assad, who led the country during Syria's nearly 14-year revolutionary conflict, abandoned his generals and fled the besieged nation
00:45to Russia in 2024, after rebels gained an offensive foothold and stormed Damascus in a stunning takeover.
00:52The Syrian court also laid down the same conviction and sentence to Assad's younger brother, Maher al-Assad, an ex
00:59-military official who also jetted off to Moscow and was once considered the second most powerful figure in the Syrian
01:05regime.
01:06Although the Assad brothers were sentenced in absentia, the ex-dictator's first cousin, Atef Najib, was left to face the
01:12music in person.
01:13Najib, a former brigadier general who headed up political security in the country's Dura province, was also dealt a death
01:20sentence after being convicted of crimes against humanity.
01:24Najib oversaw a violent crackdown against protesters in 2011, which included torturing and murdering detainees, some of which were children.
01:32The court ruling was a major milestone for the country's transitional government, which has been led by interim president Ahmed
01:38al-Sharah, a former rebel who helped lead the offensive that overthrew the brutal dictator.
01:43Assad gained power in 2000, inheriting the regime after the death of his father, Hafez al-Assad.
01:49According to Reuters, although there was cautious optimism for positive government reform initially, the dictator continued his father's repressive tactics.
01:57The combination of the regime's continued police state and the pro-democracy Arab Spring movement sparked a bloody revolution in
02:042011, which lasted nearly 14 years.
02:07Early in the revolution, the United Nations directly implicated Assad in human rights abuses by committing war crimes, according to
02:14the BBC.
02:16In 2013, Assad troops attacked a rebel-held area outside of Damascus with sarin gas, killing hundreds of people.
02:23A similar chemical attack was also conducted in 2017.
02:26Assad troops were also known for using unguided barrel bombs, improvised weapons that, when airdropped, cause widespread indiscriminate damage, leading
02:35to civilian casualties.
02:37According to the United Nations, an estimated 580,000 people were killed during the Civil War.
02:42The Assad regime also managed a network of horrifying prisons, which have been likened to death camps.
02:48After rebels toppled the Assad regime, a mass grave containing the bodies of at least 100,000 people, tortured and
02:54killed during the dictatorship, was discovered outside Damascus.
02:58The head of a U.S.-based Syrian advocacy group said the corpses were squished by bulldozers to, quote, fit them
03:04in.
03:04The grim discovery is believed to be one of the largest mass graves in modern history.
03:09According to the Washington Post, Shira has requested Russia extradite the former dictator, although it's unlikely the nation will follow
03:15through.
