{"id":33317,"date":"2026-04-26T14:45:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T12:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/syria-holds-public-trial-for-assads-cousin-for-crimes-against-civilians\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T14:45:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T12:45:26","slug":"syria-holds-public-trial-for-assads-cousin-for-crimes-against-civilians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/syria-holds-public-trial-for-assads-cousin-for-crimes-against-civilians\/","title":{"rendered":"Syria holds public trial for Assad&#8217;s cousin for crimes against civilians"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Atef-Najib.jpg\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;margin-bottom:20px\"><\/p>\n<p>Atef Najib, the cousin of ousted ex-president Bashar al-Assad and former head of political security in the Syrian city of Daraa, has appeared before the Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus, Anadolu broadcast.<\/p>\n<p>Al-Ikhbariya TV broadcast video footage of Najib being seen in the defendant&#8217;s cage after being brought to court in the Syrian capital.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe first transitional justice trials in Syria include a detainee (Atef Najib) and the defendants who are on the run,&#8221; the channel quoted an unidentified judge as saying.<\/p>\n<p>Among the fugitives are Bashar al-Assad and his brother Maher Assad, commander of the Fourth Division, as well as former Defense Minister Fahd Jassem al-Freij, former head of military intelligence in Daraa, Laith al-Ali, and former head of military intelligence in Suwayda province, Wafiq Nasser.<\/p>\n<p>The judge adjourned the hearing until May 10.<\/p>\n<p>Najib, who was arrested in January last year, graduated from the Military Academy before joining the intelligence services, where he held several positions, including the Political Security Branch in Daraa.<\/p>\n<p>He is accused of being one of the first to commit violations against civilians in Daraa, the city where this year&#8217;s uprising began. 2011.<\/p>\n<p>He is also blamed for arresting and torturing children in Daraa who had written anti-regime slogans on walls, an incident that sparked the first protests in Syria.<\/p>\n<p>In December 2024, al-Assad, who ruled Syria for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia, ending decades of Baath Party rule that began in 1963. A transitional administration of led by president Ahmad al-Sharaa was formed in January 2025.<\/p>\n<p>We use cookies to improve the experience and display ads (Google AdSense).<br \/>\n          By clicking &#8220;Accept&#8221;, you agree to the use of cookies according to<br \/>\n          Privacy Policy<br \/>\n          and<br \/>\n          Cookies Policy.<br \/>\n          You can reject non-necessary cookies by clicking &#8220;Reject&#8221;.<\/p>\n<hr style=\"margin:30px 0\">\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#666\">Source: <strong>prizrenpost<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Atef Najib, the cousin of ousted ex-president Bashar al-Assad and former head of political security in the Syrian city of Daraa, has appeared before the Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus, Anadolu broadcast. Al-Ikhbariya TV broadcast video footage of Najib being seen in the defendant&#8217;s cage after being brought to court in the Syrian capital. \u201cThe [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[666],"class_list":["post-33317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-brief"],"views":15,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33317"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33319,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33317\/revisions\/33319"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}