Who is Wassim al-Assad, sentenced to death for Syria war atrocities?

His sentence on Tuesday was handed down one week after former President Bashar al-Assad; his younger brother, Maher al-Assad; and cousin Atef Najib were also sentenced to death. We break down who Wassim al-Assad is and what he has been found guilty of amid ongoing transitional justice efforts in Syria.

Wassim al-Assad, 46, was born in Latakia on Syria’s Mediterranean coast. He is a cousin of Bashar al-Assad, who was ousted in a lightning rebel advance on the capital, Damascus, in December 2024. Bashar and Maher al-Assad and other members of their family fled to Moscow, where they have lived in exile under tight Russian supervision ever since. A member of Syria’s minority Alawite community, Bashar al-Assad had been in power since 2000. He took over when his father, Hafez, who had ruled Syria since 1970, died.

A transitional government took power soon after the fall of the al-Assad regime. It is headed by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, one of the leaders of the armed opposition groups that overthrew the al-Assad regime. The current government has overseen a judicial process to bring perpetrators of crimes against humanity committed under the regime to justice. Wassim al-Assad is one of those who is facing a range of charges, including establishing and leading pro-regime paramilitary groups since early 2011 when Syria’s civil war began with Arab Spring protests, which were violently crushed by al-Assad forces. In all, almost half a million Syrians were killed during the war. Between 13 million and 14 million of Syria’s 22 million pre-war population were displaced from their homes, roughly half of them forced to flee overseas.

Wassim al-Assad was specifically charged with participating in military operations targeting civilian areas in Eastern Ghouta, particularly the town of al-Mleiha, where many civilians were killed. Eastern Ghouta is a farming region just east of Damascus. During the Syrian war, it became a major rebel stronghold, was put under military siege by the al-Assad government and was the site of a resulting humanitarian crisis.

On Tuesday, the Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus handed down a death sentence after finding Wassim al-Assad guilty. Judge Fakhr al-Din al-Aryan said Wassim al-Assad had committed multiple murders and “murder accompanied by torture and brutality … classified as crimes against humanity and war crimes”.