{"id":159892,"date":"2026-05-29T12:13:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T10:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/?p=159892"},"modified":"2026-05-29T12:57:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T10:57:33","slug":"syrian-transition-on-brink-between-justice-and-a-legal-void","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/159892-syrian-transition-on-brink-between-justice-and-a-legal-void.html","title":{"rendered":"Syrian transition on brink between justice and a legal void"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Syria, which has been in transition since the fall of the Assad regime, has launched two trials -- one in Aleppo and the other in Damascus. It has also launched two commissions: on enforced disappearances, and on transitional justice. But the legal framework remains unclear, as does the relationship between criminal justice and transitional justice<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

On May 10, 2026, the Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus held its second hearing in the trial of Major General Atef Najib<\/a>, a former head of Political Security in Deraa and cousin to former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. Najib is the first senior figure from the former regime to appear before a Syrian court. He is being tried alongside several other high-ranking officials, who are being prosecuted in absentia. The atmosphere was in stark contrast to the first hearing on April 26, when the courthouse doors were wide open. This time, the families of victims who had travelled from Deraa (southwestern Syria) were not allowed to attend the proceedings. Some waited outside the courthouse holding signs demanding justice. Inside, the tone was more subdued. The shouts, revolutionary chants, and ululations of the previous hearing were replaced by an attentive silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Najib, seated in a steel cage to the right of the judges\u2019 bench and dressed in a striped prison uniform, appeared calm. Unshackled, with his hands clasped, he observed the courtroom closely under the watchful eye of police officers in dark blue uniforms. Facing him was the presiding judge, Fakhir al-Din al-Arian, flanked by his associate judges and the Damascus Attorney General, Husam Khattab. The presiding judge opened the hearing, which is being partially broadcast by several Syrian media outlets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Torture, killing and cracking down on protests<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The public part of this hearing, which continues in closed session with the questioning of the defendant, is devoted to reading the indictment and presenting the charges against him. The acts in question took place primarily in 2011 in Deraa, a city in southern Syria considered the cradle of the Syrian revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the prosecution, the forces led by Najib notably arrested children who had written anti-regime slogans on the walls of their school. These minors allegedly suffered physical and psychological torture, including electric shocks, severe beatings, and the pulling out of fingernails. Some are said to have died under torture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Najib allegedly rejected mediation attempts by Deraa\u2019s community leaders and led the armed crackdown on peaceful protests -- using live ammunition, storming the Omari Mosque, preventing medical aid from reaching the wounded, and systematically resorting to arbitrary detention and torture. He held a central position in the security chain of command in Deraa, allegedly supervising or ordering operations that led to serious abuses against civilians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his opening statement, Prosecutor General Khattab described the crackdown carried out by the Deraa authorities as a turning point that helped set the country ablaze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Qualification of crimes remains tenuous<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of the most striking aspects of this hearing lies in the legal qualification of the crimes adopted by the court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to presiding judge Fakhir al-Din al-Arian, the alleged acts constitute, in particular, \u201cwar crimes\u201d and \u201ccrimes against humanity\u201d. To justify this qualification, he cited several international instruments, including the Geneva Conventions, the Convention against Torture and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. He also cited the constitutional declaration promulgated in March 2025<\/a>, which provides for the incorporation into Syrian law of international conventions ratified<\/a> by Syria [namely the Convention against Torture, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, but not the Geneva Conventions]. Finally, he cited Article 49 of the Constitutional Declaration<\/a>, which stipulates that \u201cwar crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and all crimes committed by the former regime are excluded from the principle of non-retroactivity of laws\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this qualification of the crimes raises significant legal questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\t

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In a follow-up report<\/a> on this hearing, the Syrian organization My Rights Mena argues that characterizing the acts as \u201cwar crimes\u201d raises questions under international humanitarian law. The acts for which Najib is charged date back to early 2011, before the situation escalated into a non-international armed conflict. The report argues, however, that the classification as crimes against humanity appears to correspond \u201cto the widespread and systematic nature of the violations committed against civilians during that period\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another difficulty is that Syrian law contains no provisions explicitly criminalizing war crimes and crimes against humanity. As in the Aleppo trial<\/a>, the judge therefore relies on articles of the 1949 Syrian Penal Code, particularly those relating to intentional homicide, torture, unlawful deprivation of liberty and incitement to sectarian violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The My Rights Mena report also highlights several significant procedural shortcomings and calls for strengthening fair trial guarantees, protecting judicial independence, and modernizing Syrian legislation. \u201cAny serious path toward accountability in Syria must be accompanied by comprehensive legislative reform that explicitly incorporates international crimes into the Syrian Penal Code and ratifies the key international conventions relating to these crimes,\u201d explains Almoutassim Al Kilani, an international criminal law expert and founder of My Rights Mena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cA trial to contain victims\u2019 discontent\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The legal framework for transitional justice also remains largely incomplete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legal scholar and transitional justice expert Habib Nassar says it is \u201cregrettable that a hearing of such importance sometimes gives the impression of being staged, without it being clear how this trial fits into a broader transitional justice strategy\u201d. According to him, \u201cit is possible that the Syrian authorities initiated the proceedings in haste, primarily to contain victims\u2019 discontent\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo avoid any perception of selective justice, it must be clearly demonstrated that there is a strategy for criminal prosecutions regarding all the violations that marked the previous period,\u201d Nassar comments. It should be noted that Najib is Alawite, a minority group to which Assad belongs. \u201cThis is reminiscent of the haste observed in certain post-war justice systems, such as in Iraq, where perceptions of selective justice have inevitably fuelled communal tensions,\u201d Nassar continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\u201cThis
\u201cThis Day shall every person be recompensed for what he earned. No injustice (shall be done to anybody). Truly, Allah is Swift in reckoning.\u201d This verse from the Quran is inscribed on a placard held by relatives of victims, in Damascus, at the opening of the trial of Atef Najib, former head of a branch of the Political Security Directorate under Assad\u2019s regime, on 26 April 2026. Photo: \u00a9 Bakr Alkasem \/ AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A Transitional Justice Law on Hold<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To date, no comprehensive Syrian law on transitional justice has been adopted, and the draft bill announced has still not been made public. Nassar believes that such a bill is unlikely to see the light of day before the formation of the future Syrian Parliament<\/a>, many seats of which remain vacant. Alkilani suggests that failure to enact this law could serve as \u201ca pretext to undermine the path to transitional justice\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several Syrian organizations are, however, trying to develop a legal framework suited to this transitional period. On May 12, 2026, 27 civil society organizations signed a document entitled \u201cPathways to Criminal Accountability in Syria<\/a>\u201d. This is the result of eight months of consultations bringing together Syrian and international experts, civil society organizations, victims, survivors\u2019 associations, and representatives of the commissions responsible for transitional justice and the disappeared. This text proposes a roadmap for establishing \u201ccredible and inclusive\u201d mechanisms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFew countries in transition have had a civil society as sophisticated and experienced as Syria\u2019s, nor three international mechanisms dedicated to its situation,\u201d Nassar notes. He believes that Syrian authorities and the judiciary should seek the support of civil society and ensure its full participation in any justice process, while benefiting from the assistance of United Nations mechanisms like the International, Impartial, and Independent Mechanism on Syria<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A transitional justice model in the making<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

But instead, legal ambiguity fuels confusion among Syrians, some of whom believe that the Transitional Justice Commission could conduct trials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We should abandon the idea that the Syrian authorities are following any structured model of transitional justice, Nassar argues. \u201cThe role of the National Commission for Transitional Justice in criminal prosecutions remains undefined to this day, as neither its rules of procedure nor the transitional justice law\u2014supposedly under development\u2014have yet been adopted,\u201d he says. \u201cThe question of its future role and its relationship with the criminal justice system therefore remains entirely open. For the moment, we are dealing with measures taken on an ad hoc basis that are difficult to fit into a genuine framework or model of transitional justice, as such a framework does not yet exist at this stage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This publication was funded by the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of Justice Info and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union. Justice Info\u2019s journalists retain full editorial independence over all content.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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Syria, which has been in transition since the fall of the Assad regime, has launched two major trials, in Aleppo and in Damascus. It has also launched two commissions: on enforced disappearances, and on transitional justice. But the legal framework remains unclear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":159880,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[],"ji_location":[2499],"class_list":["post-159892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-tribunals","ji_location-syria"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTransitional justice in Syria: on brink between justice and a legal void<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Syria, which has been in transition since the fall of the Assad regime, has launched two major trials, in Aleppo and in Damascus. 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But the legal framework remains unclear.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/159892-syrian-transition-on-brink-between-justice-and-a-legal-void.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/159892-syrian-transition-on-brink-between-justice-and-a-legal-void.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/159892-syrian-transition-on-brink-between-justice-and-a-legal-void.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Syria_president-al-Sharaa-signs-constitution_@Bakr-Alkasem-AFP.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Syria_president-al-Sharaa-signs-constitution_@Bakr-Alkasem-AFP.jpg","width":1200,"height":800,"caption":"On 13 March 2025, Syria\u2019s transitional president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, signed the \u2018constitutional declaration\u2019. He also signed the decree establishing a commission for missing persons and a commission for transitional justice. To date, the country does not yet have a law on transitional justice, nor does it have a functioning parliament. Photo: \u00a9 Bakr Alkasem \/ AFP"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/159892-syrian-transition-on-brink-between-justice-and-a-legal-void.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Syrian transition on brink between justice and a legal void"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/","name":"JusticeInfo.net","description":"For justice to be done, it must be seen","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/#organization","name":"Justice Info","url":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/justiceinfo_logo-trans_1200x1200px.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/justiceinfo_logo-trans_1200x1200px.png","width":1199,"height":1200,"caption":"Justice Info"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JusticeInfo\/","https:\/\/x.com\/justiceinfonet","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/justice-info","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCyCEsARodyuWtkWyhn-e7pA"]},{"@type":"Person","name":"Bushra Alzoubi","url":"\/en\/?s=Bushra Alzoubi"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159892"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":159910,"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159892\/revisions\/159910"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159892"},{"taxonomy":"ji_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ji_location?post=159892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}