Breaking the Mold of Impunity: What Bashar al-Assad's Death Sentence Means for Syria's Future

A defaced portrait of Syria's ousted president Bashar al-Assad hangs on a wall in the capital Damascus on June 2, 2025. The judge who sentenced Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia last week was himself sentenced to death in absentia by the same regime years earlier, representing irony in its purest form.

Judge Fakhr al-Din al-Aryan defected from the Ministry of Justice in 2013, joining the judicial bodies of the opposition. His reinstatement as judge after Assad was toppled and fled the country for Russia in December 2024 is an illustration of the country’s pursuit of transitional justice. Some Syrians celebrated in the streets after the death sentence handed down to al-Assad and his younger brother, Maher, with words like 'historic' and 'symbolic' being used. For the first time, after decades of brutal Assad rule by both Bashar al-Assad and his father, Hafez al-Assad, the model of impunity in Syria has been broken, even if the penalty is unlikely to ever be carried out.

The Syrian civil war, which started in 2011, killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced millions more, and ravaged the country’s economy. Ibrahim al-Assil, a senior research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative, noted that the sentences handed down are significant politically and emotionally, but represent only one part of the justice that many Syrians have waited for and continue to demand.

When Assad fled Syria for exile in Moscow in December 2024, he left behind institutions and a legal system his family had built over six decades. Al-Assil stated that the sentencing was the first step to evaluate the new state and determine whether new rules and institutions are emerging to differentiate between justice under Assad and justice post-Assad.

Questions remain over whether the sentencing met the standards of credible transitional justice. Amnesty International urged Syria to end trials in absentia and the use of the death penalty, incorporate crimes under international law into domestic legislation, and reform the judiciary. However, the justice ministry rejected the criticism, maintaining that the proceedings complied with Syrian law and included the participation of victims and their representatives.

Fadel Abdul Ghany, founder of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, which has documented victims of the Assad regime since 2011, emphasized the need for numerous cases targeting the highest ranks to reduce public anger and help Syria move forward. Al-Assil agreed that more localized trials must follow to bring as many perpetrators of the former regime's brutal system to justice as possible.

While few believe Russian President Vladimir Putin would ever extradite Assad from Moscow, the legalities of transitional justice still mark a landmark moment for the country. Alongside legal developments, figures like Abdul Ghany point to newfound freedoms of speech and criticism as signs of hope, noting that citizens can now freely criticize the government without repercussions.

Under Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former rebel commander who has served as Syria’s President since 2025, the country has bolstered international ties, including lifting most US sanctions, renewing relations with Arab neighbors, and hosting French President Emmanuel Macron. Furthermore, al-Sharaa reached an agreement with Moscow to transfer key Russian Mediterranean coastal bases to Syrian control.

Despite these developments, entrenched challenges remain regarding national unity. Tensions between the Syrian Army and the Druze minority in southern Syria, friction between Arab and Kurdish communities in the northeast, and pockets of violence against the Alawite minority along the coast continue to pose significant hurdles for the new administration.