HQBashar al-Assad, former Syria president between 2000 until 2024, when he was overthrown and exiled to Russia, has been sentenced to death in absentia by the Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus, guilty of premeditated murder, torture, and crimes against humanity. He, along eight other officials of his regime, including his brother and cousin, were sentenced to death, in the first conviction against the former Syrian president after the 14-year civil war. Najib launched the deadly crackdown on protesters in Deera in April 2011, which resulted in hundreds of deaths and led to the civil war. "This is something they've waited for a long time. They want to see these people that tortured their children, displaced them from their homes and destroyed their communities be held to account for these crimes", Hitto said.