A Syrian court sentenced ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad along with his younger brother to death in absentia on Tuesday for crimes against humanity and war crimes during Syria’s 14-year conflict that left about half a million people dead.
The sentences at the Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus are the first against Assad or members of his inner circle since the Assad family’s five decades in power came to an end 20 months ago.
“Bashar Assad used state agencies to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity,” said judge Fakhareddine al-Aryan during a court session that was aired live on state TV.
The deal that Syria signed saved face for Russia by letting them maintain a foothold but in practice the most useful parts of the facilities are being transferred to Syria. Syria will take control of the civilian facilities at the Hmeimim airbase and the commercial section of the Tartus port. The military facilities are to be transformed into joint Russian-Syrian training centers.
edit: think I misread your post. Yeah Assad lives or dies by Putin’s word but that’s been the case for a while. I think his personal value in anything he can physically do is way outweighed by his symbolic value. His continued existence is a symbol that Putin will stand by his international partners, but he’s also the textbook example of a psycho incompetent dictator so taking him to justice also has great symbolic value for Syria especially. He’ll be gone if Syria offers up something more valuable to Russia than that symbol of friendship to their partners around the world but, since he hasn’t disappeared yet, I guess the Syrian government has been balking at the cost of that hypothetical deal.