Syrian judiciary sentences Waseem al-Assad to death and Lebanon hands over a former general

On Tuesday (August 18, 2026), the Syrian judiciary issued a death sentence against Wassim al-Assad, the cousin of ousted President Bashar al-Assad, after similar rulings last week affected the former president and a number of security officials from the pillars of his rule. In April, the transitional authorities began public trials, in person and in absentia, of former political and security officials and figures associated with the previous regime, on several charges amounting to “war crimes” committed after the popular protests that began in 2011 and were forcefully crushed by the previous regime before matters developed into a bloody conflict that resulted in the deaths of more than half a million people.

The head of the Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus, Judge Fakhr al-Din al-Arian, reported that Waseem al-Assad, who appeared behind bars, was “criminalized with the felony of premeditated murder, the felony of intentional murder of more than one person, and the felony of intentional murder accompanied by acts of torture and brutality toward people, as crimes against humanity and war crimes.”

Charges of murder, torture and war crimes

Al-Erian said that the court proved that the accused formed two armed groups loyal to the former regime that participated in military attacks near Damascus that caused deaths. It also convicted him of crimes of provoking civil war, sectarian fighting, deprivation of liberty, and torture. The court acquitted Al-Assad of drug smuggling and drug trafficking charges due to insufficient evidence, while reserving the right of the Public Prosecution to file the case again when new evidence becomes available.

The Syrian authorities arrested Wassim al-Assad in June 2025 on the Syrian-Lebanese border after a luring operation, according to what the Ministry of Interior reported at the time. Wassim al-Assad has been on American, British, and European sanctions lists since 2023 due to charges related to Captagon and support for the former Syrian army. The ruling came on Tuesday after the court issued death sentences in absentia against the ousted president, his brother Maher al-Assad, and a number of former officials.

The court sentenced Atef Najeeb, the former head of the Political Security Branch in Daraa and a cousin of the ousted president, to death in his presence, after convicting him of crimes of murder, torture, and deprivation of freedom following the outbreak of protest movements against the previous rule in 2011.

Lebanon hands over a former general in the Syrian army to his country's authorities

In the same context, the Lebanese judiciary decided on Tuesday to extradite a former Syrian officer to Damascus after his arrest pursuant to a warrant in absentia issued against him by his country’s judiciary to accuse him of “murder and crimes against humanity,” according to what a Lebanese judicial source told Agence France-Presse. The source, who requested to remain anonymous, said that the discriminatory Public Prosecutor, Ahmed Rami Al-Hajj, decided to “hand over former Syrian Major General Adel Issa... to the Syrian authorities to try him for the crimes attributed to him, which he is accused of committing on Syrian soil” during the rule of former President Bashar al-Assad, who was overthrown in 2024.

The source added that the extradition decision is based on a judicial agreement concluded between the two countries in 1951, and after “the Lebanese judiciary considered that the conditions for extradition were met in various legal and judicial aspects.” The source stated that the discriminatory public prosecutor made the extradition decision based on “the judicial file that Lebanon received from the Syrian authorities, which includes data indicating that Issa committed crimes on Syrian territory,” noting that “pursuing him for these crimes falls within the jurisdiction of the Syrian judiciary.”

Issa is supposed to be transferred from the Palace of Justice in Beirut, where he is being held, to the Lebanese General Directorate of General Security “in preparation for his extradition and transfer to the Lebanese-Syrian border, where he will be handed over to a Syrian security committee located on the Syrian side of the border,” according to the same source.

The Lebanese authorities arrested Issa (67 years old), who led a division in the Syrian army during the previous regime, earlier this month from his country’s embassy, where he had arrived to complete a transaction, after the embassy informed the Lebanese judiciary that the retired general was wanted by the Syrian authorities under an arrest warrant in absentia, according to what a judicial source told Agence France-Presse at the time.