1st verdicts issued in Syria violence

ALEPPO

People in Syria's northeastern city of Qamishli protest against sectarian violence targeting the Alawite minority, in March 2025. (AFP Photo)

Syria’s judiciary issued on Sept. 17 its first verdicts over last year’s killing of hundreds of members of the Alawite minority on the Syrian coast.

The court sentenced a former member of government forces to 20 years in prison for murder, while two supporters of the deposed government received a death sentence and life in prison.

Fourteen people were accused of involvement in the massacres, in a trial that opened last November. They were seven government forces members and seven supporters of former President Bashar al-Assad.
Further verdicts are expected next week.

Several of the defendants believed to be Assad supporters pleaded not guilty at the opening of the trial.
The death sentence issued was for “assault aimed at provoking civil war and sectarian clashes.”

The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, expressed criticism that “one of the largest mass massacres Syria has seen during the transition period is being reduced to just a few cases.”