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Prosecution Seeks Death Penalty for Atef Najib at Eighth Session of His Trial in Damascus
The Syrian public prosecution has requested the death penalty for Atef Najib, the former head of the Political Security Branch in Daraa governorate, during the eighth session of his trial before the Fourth Criminal Court at the Judicial Palace in Damascus.
The official Syrian news agency SANA reported that the Fourth Criminal Court has forwarded the case files for review and judgment after hearing the prosecution’s, plaintiffs’ and defense pleadings and the defendant’s final statements. The court set a new hearing for August 11 to consider the case.
The prosecution asked for Najib and other fugitive defendants named in the file to be convicted on charges including murder, torture, arbitrary detention and squandering public funds, and sought the maximum penalties prescribed by law, namely the death sentence. The prosecution also urged convictions for crimes against humanity and war crimes, including systematic torture and repeated deprivation of liberty, deliberate killing linked to torture, incitement to kill, and torture leading to death.
The prosecution requested that the defendants be sentenced to death by hanging and be ordered to pay civil compensation for material and moral damages to the plaintiffs who have filed personal claims.
Atef Najib — a son of a cousin of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad — was head of the Political Security Branch in Daraa when protests erupted in 2011 and is one of the prominent security figures associated with the early events of the uprising.
Last month the prosecution also sought the death penalty for Wassim al-Assad, a cousin of the deposed president, during his trial before the same court on charges related to alleged war crimes against Syrians.
