International and national courts outside Syria have begun the prosecution of Syrian civil war criminals. War crimes perpetrated by the Syrian government under Bashar Al-Assad or rebel groups include extermination, murder, rape or other forms of sexual violence, torture and imprisonment. "[A]ccountability for serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights is central to achieving and maintaining durable peace in Syria", stated UN Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo.
The first war crimes trial related to the Syrian civil war concluded on 12 July 2016 in Germany. It was the case of Aria L. performed under the Völkerstrafgesetzbuch (Code of Crimes against International Law (CCAIL)). , the evidence collection and cooperation with prosecutors by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (COI) had led to 50 convictions for war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Syrian civil war.
In 2026, the Syrian transitional government began holding trials for regime officials including Atef Najib and Amjad Youssef. Background
According to three international lawyers,Sir Desmond de Silva QC, former chief prosecutor of the special court for Sierra Leone, Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, the former lead prosecutor of former Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milošević, and Professor David Crane, who indicted President Charles Taylor of Liberia at the Sierra Leone court Syrian government officials were expected to risk facing war crimes charges in the light of a huge cache of evidence smuggled out of the country showing the "systematic killing" of about 11,000 detainees, constituting the 2014 Syrian detainee report. Most of the victims were young men and many corpses were emaciated, bloodstained and bore signs of torture. Some had no eyes; others showed signs of strangulation or electrocution. Experts said this evidence was more detailed and on a far larger scale than anything else that had emerged from the then 34-month crisis.
The United Nations (UN) summarised the human rights situation by stating that "siege warfare is employed in a context of egregious human rights and international humanitarian law violations. The warring parties do not fear being held accountable for their acts." Armed forces of both sides of the conflict blocked access of humanitarian convoys, confiscated food, cut off water supplies and targeted farmers working their fields. The report pointed to four places besieged by the government forces: Muadamiyah, Daraya, Yarmouk camp and Old City of Homs, as well as two areas under siege of rebel groups: Aleppo and Hama. In Yarmouk Camp 20,000 residents are facing death by starvation due to blockade by the Syrian government forces and fighting between the army and Jabhat al-Nusra, which prevents food distribution by UNRWA. In July 2015, the UN quietly removed Yarmouk from its list of besieged areas in Syria, despite not having been able deliver aid there for four months, and declined to explain why it had done so.
Forces of the Islamic State (IS) militant group have been accused by the UN of using public executions, amputations, and lashings in a campaign to instill fear. "Forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham have committed torture, murder, acts tantamount to enforced disappearance and forced displacement as part of attacks on the civilian population in Aleppo and Raqqa governorates, amounting to crimes against humanity", said the report from 27 August 2014.
Enforced disappearances and arbitrary detentions have also been a feature since the Syrian uprising began. An Amnesty International report, published in November 2015, accused the Syrian government of forcibly disappearing more than 65,000 people since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War. According to a report in May 2016 by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 60,000 people have been killed since March 2011 through torture or from poor humanitarian conditions in Syrian government prisons.Monitor: 60,000 dead in Syria government jails Al Jazeera
In February 2017, Amnesty International published a report which accused the Syrian government of murdering an estimated 13,000 persons, mostly civilians, at the Saydnaya military prison. They said the killings began in 2011 and were still ongoing. Amnesty International described this as a "policy of deliberate extermination" and also stated that "These practices, which amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, are authorised at the highest levels of the Syrian government." Three months later, the United States State Department stated a crematorium had been identified near the prison. According to the U.S., it was being used to burn thousands of bodies of those killed by the government's forces and to cover up evidence of atrocities and war crimes. Amnesty International expressed surprise at the claims about the crematorium, as the photographs used by the US are from 2013 and they did not see them as conclusive, and fugitive government officials have stated that the government buries those its executes in cemeteries on military grounds in Damascus. The Syrian government denied the allegations.
Perpetrators Four key security agencies have overseen government repression in Syria: the General Security Directorate, the Political Security Branch, the Military Intelligence Branch, and the Air Force Intelligence Branch. All three corps of the Syrian army have been deployed in a supporting role to the security forces; the civilian police have been involved in crowd control. The shabiha, led by the security forces, also participated in abuses. Since Hafez al-Assad's rule, individuals from the Alawite minority have controlled (although they not always formally headed) these four agencies, as well as several elite military units, and comprise the bulk of them.
Syrian legal framework Four of the international instruments ratified by Syria and which apply to events in the civil war are particularly relevant: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR); the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the Convention on the Rights of the Child; and the UN Convention Against Torture. Syria is not a party to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, although it is bound by the provisions of the ICCPR that also prohibit enforced disappearances.
International and National courts (International and Universal jurisdiction)
All governments manage their territories with national laws. Prosecution for war crimes under the national laws of a given country would typically depend on either the accused, the victim's residence or the occurrence of the event being in that country. Universal jurisdiction bypasses this constraint. In this mechanism, the "cases" that have no connection to the territory (e.g. crimes in high seas) have been used by prosecutors and have been criticized by human rights organisations as leading to a de facto presence requirement (e.g. existence of a crime can not be solved through collecting unbiased evidence from the crime scene, as the court don't have untethered access).
Many perpatators currently reside in Syria. International crimes are typically state crimes. If, a state is connected to a crime (directly or indirectly), most of the powerful perpetrators (e.g. state officials) reside in Syria. In such situations, the International Court of Justice is the judicial organ to settle international legal disputes submitted by states against other states.
Syrian courts Shortly after the fall of Bashar Al-Assad in December 2024, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa promised that the new Syrian government would track down and prosecute former Assad regime officials who were implicated in war crimes, stating "We will not hesitate to hold accountable the criminals, murderers, security and army officers involved in torturing the Syrian people." Sharaa also stated that Syrian security forces would seek the repatriation of accused war criminals who had fled overseas after the fall of Assad. However, multiple legal experts have cast doubt on the Syrian court system's capabilities to conduct war crimes trials, while it was highlighted that Al-Sharaa's former rebel group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, was also implicated in war crimes during the civil war, including the alleged forced disappearances of over 2,500 Syrians, including 46 children.
Since Al-Sharaa took power, there have been multiple instances of extrajudicial killings or revenge attacks perpetrated against former Assad regime officials, including those who had previously been implicated in crimes against humanity or extortion committed during Assad's rule. A claimed lack of adequate transitional justice measures by the new Syrian government has been blamed for the rise in revenge attacks, with victims of abuses under Assad's government sometimes taking matters into their own hands against former regime officials. Syrian commentators also cited alleged "settlements" that the interim authorities had made with certain high-ranking pro-Assad officials that allow them to escape arrest or prosecution for crimes committed during Assad's rule.
However, there have been some steps made by the transitional government towards criminal prosecution for alleged war criminals. In May 2025, Al-Sharaa announced the establishment of the National Commission for Transitional Justice, a move welcomed by multiple international human rights organizations, while criticism has been drawn for only focusing on crimes committed by Assad regime officials, excluding victims of abuse by non-state actors during the civil war.
On 11 August 2026, the Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus sentenced Bashar al-Assad, his brother Maher al-Assad, former defense minister Fahd Jassem al-Freij and five other officials to death in absentia—except for former head of the Political Security Directorate in Daraa and his first cousin Atef Najib, who was put on trial.https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/syria-s-bashar-al-assad-8-other-officials-sentenced-to-death/ar-AA29R4I0?ocid=winp2fptaskbarhover&cvid=6edb56efff814e40e7271b346ccd88dc&ei=24 They were convicted of premeditated murder, torture and crimes against humanity committed during the Syrian Civil War.
Following the ruling, a crowd gathered outside the court buildings, holding images of some of the people who had been killed under the Assad regime. There were spontaneous scenes of applause and chanting, while cars driving past, sounded their vehicle horns in support of the court's verdict. The week after Bashar's trial, his cousin Wassim al-Assad was also condemned to death. A former leader in pro-government militias, Wassim had been found guilty of multiple murders as well as torture and deprivation of liberty.
At another trial, Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun, the former Grand Mufti of Syria under the Assad regime, was prosecuted on charges of incitement to murder, abuse of his office, "justifying" violence, and complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity. Hassoun's teachings had been used by the regime to justify attacks on civilian areas and provide a religious basis for its military operations. Hassoun was convicted after a six-day trial and sentenced to life imprisonment on 24 August 2026.
International courts On 22 December 2016, with 105 votes in favour and 15 against, with 52 abstentions, the United Nations General Assembly voted to establish an "independent panel to assist in the investigation and prosecution of those responsible for war crimes or crimes against humanity in Syria".
Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria The U.N. General Assembly created a new entity, the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism, to build investigative files for future prosecutions, Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria (COI).