Syria: Two people sentenced to death for massacre of Alawites

The verdicts are not yet final and no death sentences have been carried out in Syria since the fall of the Assad regime. Several members of the Syrian armed forces were sentenced to prison terms, some of them long, in the same trial. The first verdicts in connection with the mass murders were announced in September.

Acts of revenge by supporters of Ahmed al-Sharaa

In March 2025, three months after the fall of al-Assad, clashes between Alawites and Sunnis broke out on the Syrian coast when former Assad supporters attacked checkpoints of the new Syrian government. As a result, there were acts of revenge by supporters of the new interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa, in which hundreds of civilians from the Alawite minority were murdered. The coastal region of Syria is a stronghold of the Alawites, of which Assad is also a member.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights warned in a statement that the process should not become a selective process that creates new injustice.

In addition, the rights of the hundreds of victims and their families who are still waiting for justice and punishment for those responsible must be safeguarded. This includes "the complete clarification of the truth and the criminal prosecution of all persons whose responsibility for the violations is proven - regardless of their position or affiliation," the statement continued.

The national commission of inquiry into the events on the Syrian coast had previously announced that it had documented the deaths of 1,426 people, including 90 women. She also identified 563 suspects who belonged to various parties to the conflict and were allegedly involved in the attacks. However, the commission did not see this as a systematic approach.