Why many Syrians feel Assad death sentence isn't enough

Huda Khayti often finds herself returning to the place where she lost almost everything. Khayti, a Syrian women's rights activist, survived a 2013 chemical weapons attack on the east Ghouta region by forces of the former Syrian dictator Bashar Assad.

Her brother was killed by the bombs of the Assad regime and its allies. Her women's center was destroyed along with her home and in 2018, she had to leave her hometown of Douma — a major city in Ghouta — and flee to Idlib, a rebel stronghold in northern Syria.

Today, Khayti regularly visits her hometown, which is about 10 kilometers (about 6 miles) northeast of the country's capital, Damascus. Since the Assad regime was overthrown in late 2024, Khayti has traveled regularly between Idlib and Douma, where she's even working on opening a new women's center.

"Ghouta means so much to me emotionally," she told DW. But every time she returns there, she is also confronted with remnants of the civil war. "When I'm traveling through the country I see traces of war everywhere, so many houses and so much infrastructure destroyed. So much suffering. So much trauma."

Almost two years since the overthrow of the Assad regime, Syria has started a process to examine the crimes of the regime in court. In mid-August a Damascus court sentenced Bashar Assad and other high-ranking members of his regime to death in absentia . Assad is currently living in Russia, where he fled after his government was overthrown. Many senior officials are also there or hiding elsewhere.

Among other things, Assad was found guilty of premeditated murder, torture and depriving individuals of their liberty. The court said these were war crimes and crimes against humanity.

"Of course, this conviction of Assad is a good thing," Khayti said. "Even if it's only on paper. Bashar Assad may have been convicted but he just continues to live his life in Russia — like so many other Syrian criminals who fled to Russia."

The court's conviction had a big impact in Syria anyway. "The verdict had a lot of echoes by people, they were so happy," said Lina Chawaf, a Syrian journalist, media expert and researcher at Harvard University's Center for Middle Eastern Studies. "Many media celebrated the verdict on the statement day as a victory and consider it as part of transitional justice."