Bashar Assad Sentenced to Death, Yet Syrian Survivors Demand Deeper Accountability

Huda Khayti frequently returns to the place where she lost everything. A Syrian women’s rights activist, she survived a 2013 chemical weapons attack on east Ghouta carried out by forces of former dictator Bashar Assad.

Her brother was killed by Assad regime bombs, and her women’s center and home were destroyed. In 2018, she fled Douma, a major Ghouta city, for Idlib, a rebel stronghold in northern Syria.

Today, Khayti regularly visits her hometown, roughly 10 kilometers northeast of Damascus. Since the Assad regime fell in late 2024, she has traveled between Idlib and Douma, where she is working to open a new women’s center.

“Ghouta means so much to me emotionally,” she told DW. Yet, every visit forces her to confront remnants of the war. “When traveling through the country, I see traces of war everywhere—so many houses and infrastructure destroyed. So much suffering. So much trauma.”

Nearly two years after the regime’s overthrow, Syria has begun examining its crimes in court. In mid-August, a Damascus court sentenced Bashar Assad and other high-ranking officials to death in absentia. Assad currently lives in Russia, where he fled, alongside many senior officials who remain at large or in hiding.

Assad was found guilty of premeditated murder, torture, and unlawful detention, which the court ruled were war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“Of course, this conviction is a good thing,” Khayti said, “even if it’s only symbolic. Bashar Assad may have been convicted, but he continues living his life in Russia—just like so many other Syrian criminals who fled there.”

Justice served in Syria?

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Rana Sheikh-Ali, founder of Daret Salam (Peace Circuit), which uses technology to build peace and empower women, views the August trial as largely symbolic. While she opposes the death penalty from a human rights perspective, she acknowledges that many locals viewed the death sentences as just.

However, prosecuting high-ranking regime members is only one aspect of transitional justice.

Transitional justice extends beyond criminal trials. It also involves locating missing persons, investigating crimes, determining reparations, and implementing institutional reforms—all centered on victims and survivors.

According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, the scale of the task is staggering. The advocacy network reports that over 234,805 civilians were killed during the civil war, with at least 202,000 killed by the Assad regime and its allies.

Furthermore, there are at least 181,312 cases of arbitrary arrest and enforced disappearance, along with 45,339 torture-related deaths to investigate. Actual numbers are likely much higher, and the network has also documented 217 chemical weapons attacks by the Assad regime.

Victim-centered process needed

Women’s rights activist Khayti was just kilometers from the epicenter of one of those attacks in eastern Ghouta in 2013. “I remember it like it was yesterday,” she recounted. “I cannot forget the screams of the victims. I thought we were next. I felt that scratchiness in my throat, that burning in my eyes.”

For a truly victim-centered system of transitional justice, it is not enough for survivors to merely act as witnesses in court. “Victims must also participate in every detail of the transitional justice process,” she explained.

Additionally, those impacted must be able to participate voluntarily and be protected, Sheikh-Ali added. They should be able to speak about their experiences and be heard on issues like compensation, financial support, and public recognition.

For survivors like Khayti, this means justice cannot focus solely on Assad and a few top regime officials.

“I also want to see convictions for individuals whose reports led people to the Saydnaya torture prison,” Khayti said. “These individuals are just as guilty as the torturers themselves.”

Currently, however, it is unclear exactly how thoroughly Syria will confront its past.

“Convictions in absentia against Assad and other officials send an important signal after decades of impunity,” said Sophie Bischoff, managing director of Adopt a Revolution. “But for survivors like Huda Khayti, these sentences remain symbolic as long as those convicted are not actually held accountable—and it is still unclear who will be held accountable, on what legal basis, and who will be granted immunity.”

Bischoff also noted that the new Syrian state has yet to fully and comprehensively investigate crimes against humanity and war crimes.

“So far, Syrian civil society organizations and human rights activists have been researching and documenting these cases for years,” she told DW. “Systematic state documentation of violent crimes from the Assad era is only just beginning.”

The new Syrian government has created two commissions to address transitional justice. In late August, the National Commission for Missing Persons launched a platform called Athar, where families of the missing can submit information.

The other body, the National Commission for Transitional Justice, was established in May 2025 but has so far only addressed crimes committed by the Assad regime, ignoring those by warring militias or the extremist group known as the “Islamic State”.

Return to Syria: Rebuilding and seeking justice in Yarmouk

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Investigating all war crimes

“This falls far short,” said Bischoff. “For a comprehensive reckoning and a new beginning in a Syria for all, the war crimes of all warring parties must be included.”

For Khayti, centering victims in transitional justice has another difficult aspect. Her testimony is being heard, but it forces her back into her original trauma.

“It’s difficult for me to talk about it, and I often feel like I’m reliving it,” Khayti explained.

Sheikh-Ali said centering victims means those impacted play a meaningful role, but they should also be protected while doing so.

Khayti added that it is also important to remember these events. In Douma, she is working to preserve recollections of the war. “We need to inform younger people so that the memory doesn’t fade,” she said.

In Syria, she said it is now about finding the missing, holding all perpetrators accountable, fully investigating all crimes, and giving survivors a voice.

“We will continue to be loud,” Khayti said. “And we will continue to demand justice.”

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