Former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been sentenced to death for crimes committed during the war in the country.
Modern.az reports that, according to SANA agency, a Syrian court found Assad guilty of crimes against humanity, premeditated murder, torture, and unlawful deprivation of liberty.
Bashar al-Assad was born on September 11, 1965, in Damascus, into the family of General Hafez al-Assad, who participated in several military coups and later became President of Syria (1971–2000).
At the age of 14, he joined the youth wing of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. He studied at the elite Arab-French lyceum called Al-Hurriyah, and in 1988, he graduated with honors from the Faculty of Medicine at Damascus University, specializing as an ophthalmologist.
After graduation, he worked for four years in a military hospital. In 1992, he completed an internship at the "Western Eye Hospital" ophthalmology center, part of St. Mary's Hospital in London. After the death of his elder brother Basil in 1994, he returned to Syria, entered the military academy in Homs, and was admitted to the Republican Guard, becoming its commander three years later.
In addition to military service, he headed the bureau for reviewing residents' complaints and appeals, led an anti-corruption campaign, curated relations with Lebanon, and facilitated the introduction of the internet in the country. In 1999, he was appointed presidential advisor. After the death of his father, the then-acting president Hafez al-Assad, he assumed the position of supreme commander of the army and was the sole candidate for the head of state. On July 10, 2000, he was elected president with 97.3% of the votes.
In 2007, he was re-elected president for a second term with 97.6% of the votes. In 2011, the armed opposition in Syria demanded Assad's resignation, and Western countries imposed personal sanctions against him. Therefore, in February 2012, the government adopted a new constitution that enshrined a multi-party system. In 2014, Bashar al-Assad was re-elected president for a third term with 88% of the votes in the first multi-candidate elections in the country's history.
In the autumn of 2015, Assad appealed to Russia for intervention in the ongoing civil war (the active phase of the conflict ended in 2017).
In 2021, he took the presidential post for the fourth time with 95.1% of the votes. After the Syrian rebels' attack on government forces' positions, on December 8, 2024, he left the country and came to Russia with his family, where he received political asylum.
In September 2025, he was sentenced in absentia to arrest by a Syrian court, and on August 11, 2026, he was sentenced to death on charges of crimes against humanity, premeditated murder, torture, and unlawful deprivation of liberty.
He is married and has three children. He knows English and French.
