On August 18, 2026, Waseem al-Assad heard the ruling issued against him in the sixth session of his trial before the Fourth Criminal Court at the Palace of Justice in Damascus.
The official Syrian news agency, SANA, said that the court sentenced him to death after convicting him of premeditated murder of more than one person and committing acts of torture that amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes. It also ordered the confiscation of his movable and immovable assets for the benefit of the public treasury.
The ruling represents the end of a phase that began with his arrest in June 2025, but whose roots go back to the early years of the uprising against the rule of Bashar al-Assad, when Waseem’s name emerged as a family member who formed armed groups loyal to the previous government.
According to local press reports, Waseem Badie al-Assad was born in 1980, and grew up within a family whose name, for decades, was synonymous with power and influence in Syria. He is Bashar al-Assad's cousin, while his older brother Ammar was a member of the People's Assembly, and headed the Engineers Syndicate branch in Latakia Governorate, the stronghold of the al-Assad family on the Syrian coast.
Waseem was keen to show his loyalty to his cousin. Press reports say that he named his son “Bashar Hafez,” after Bashar al-Assad and his father, former President Hafez al-Assad. He also founded an artistic group called “Shams,” whose goal, reports said, was to present songs supportive of the former government and support artists loyal to it.
In parallel, Waseem al-Assad was keen to present himself as a businessman, and showed off luxury cars and apartments through his social media accounts. He ran a company called “Asad Al-Sahel,” which worked in import, export, customs clearance, and transportation. But press reports and official accusations followed him of using the company as a cover for illegal activities, including drug smuggling.
Behind the image of a businessman, Wassim al-Assad's more violent role emerged with the outbreak of protests against Bashar al-Assad's rule in 2011, which later turned into a full-scale war. Press reports say that he founded an armed group called “Military Security Shield,” before its name was changed to “Assad Shield.” This group is accused of carrying out arrests and repression operations targeting civilians and opponents of the former government, as well as being involved in acts of murder, kidnapping, extortion, and theft.
The president of the court, Judge Fakhr al-Din al-Erian, said that investigations proved that Wassim formed irregular armed groups under the direction of Brigadier General Ghayath Dala, an officer associated with the Fourth Division, which was led by Maher al-Assad, Bashar al-Assad’s brother. According to SANA, Waseem took over the management and formation of these groups since the beginning of 2011, and they participated in military operations that targeted civilian areas in Eastern Ghouta, especially the town of Al-Maliha.
The ruling was also based on a separate incident in the city of Jaramana, near Damascus. The judge said that the court concluded “beyond a reasonable doubt” that an armed group affiliated with Wassim al-Assad attacked a store and stole its contents, before kidnapping its owner because of his opposition to the previous government.
In addition to his armed role, Waseem al-Assad's name was linked to drug trafficking networks, especially Captagon. In 2023, the US Treasury Department and the European Union included Wassim al-Assad, Noah Zuaiter, and two other members of the al-Assad family on sanctions lists, due to what the sanctions authorities said was their role in a regional drug trafficking network.
As armed opposition factions advanced towards Damascus in late 2024, Wassim al-Assad tried to show his willingness to defend the family's stronghold on the coast. But the opposition factions entered Damascus on December 8, 2024, and Bashar al-Assad and his family fled to Russia, thus ending more than five decades of the Assad family’s rule of Syria. After assuming power, the new Syrian authorities launched operations to pursue people they accuse of committing violations during Assad's rule.
