A SYRIAN COURT has sentenced former ruler Bashar al-Assad to death after a trial in absentia, convicting him of atrocities committed during the country’s nearly 14-year civil war. The court also sentenced six former military and security officials in absentia to death, including Assad’s brother Maher, who ran the army’s elite Fourth Division and also fled the country. The court convicted the officials of crimes including murder, incitement to murder, torture leading to death and repeated deprivation of liberty, also considered “crimes against humanity” and “war crimes”. The acts attributed to him are “crimes against humanity”, the court said, as it handed down “the harshest punishment against him, which is the death penalty”. The Assad family ruled Syria for more than five decades, with Bashar taking the presidency in 2000 after the death of his father Hafez.