SJAC Begins Monitoring the Trial of Atef Najib

Trial reports from the Atef Najib trial will be available here (ENGLISH/ARABIC).  

On Sunday, April 26, 2026, the first prosecution of a former Assad official in Syria began at the newly created Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus. The Defendant, Atef Najib, is the first person to be tried in the Court, which has been designated to try crimes related to the transitional justice process. Although Najib appeared alone in a defendant’s cage during preliminary proceedings, he will be tried alongside eight other defendants who are being tried in absentia, most notably Bashar Al-Assad and Maher Al-Assad.  

This trial is notable not only because Atef Najib is Bashar Al-Assad’s first cousin, but also because while head of Political Security in Daraa 2011, his forces tortured and killed several children accused of creating anti-Assad graffiti. The following nationwide protests and brutal crackdown by the Assad government are often marked as the start of the Syrian conflict. 

Despite trying high-level officials, the fourth criminal court will operate within existing Syrian criminal law, which does not codify crimes against humanity, war crimes, or genocide. Instead, prosecutors will need to rely on ordinary offences such as murder and assault (the formal charges in this case have not yet been released).  Prosecuting atrocity crimes through this existing legal framework risks minimizing the actual breadth of the crimes and ignores the broader context in which they were committed. Additionally, prosecutors operating under this framework may not need to demonstrate the coordinated and large-scale nature of crimes, which is likely to result in an incomplete historical record.  

Despite these shortcomings, this trial will set Syrian legal precedent for prosecutions against other former officials. In order to facilitate public access to the trial, SJAC’s trial monitors will attend and document each trial day. Similar to the previous 17 trials monitored in Europe and Syria, SJAC will publish regular reports detailing important evidence and testimony from the trial to create a transparent and historical record of Syria’s transitional justice process.  

To learn more about SJAC’s trial monitoring program visit our trial monitoring page. 

SJAC needs your help to continue our trial monitoring efforts in Syria. Consider donating to help us monitor this and future trials against Assad affiliates. 

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