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Bashar al-Assad is a Syrian politician and dictator who served as the president of Syria since July 2000. As president, Assad was the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the secretary-general of the Central Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party.
In March 2011, popular discontent with the Ba'athist government led to large-scale protests and pro-democracy rallies across Syria, as part of the wider Arab Spring protests in the region. Numerous protests were violently suppressed by security forces in deadly crackdowns ordered by Bashar al-Assad, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths and detentions, many of whom were civilians. The Syrian revolution transformed into an insurgency with the formation of resistance militias across the country, deteriorating into a full-blown civil war by 2012
In the last couple of days, rebel forces reached Damascus, Bashar al-Assad fled and the Syrian army command announced the Assad regime had ended.
On the same day, Russia confirmed Assad was safe in the arms of Vladimir Putin and had stepped down.
We can all see the scenes unfolding in Syria. People who had fled are returning after many years away and political prisoners are released, after being held in extremely cruel conditions, almost beyond belief.
Assad is accused of chemical attacks, dropping barrel bombs on civilian populations, bombing hospitals, schools, apartment buildings, mass executions, starvation, deprivation and displacing two thirds of Syria's pre war population.
Several governments outside Syria have filed charges against al-Assad's officers and gained convictions under the concept of universal jurisdiction, France seeks al-Assad on charges for the Sarin attack in Ghouta.
The catalogue of Bashar al-Assad’s atrocities quickly transcends the toolbox of a run-of-the-mill dictator. It is deeply moving, if horrifying, to see people emerge from his prisons after decades in custody. In most countries, families can learn about their loved ones in detention, but few people departed from Assad’s worst prisons, leaving the inmates completely isolated. Their families had no idea if they were still alive.
Many were not. A Syrian military police photographer who adopted the code name “Caesar” had the unenviable task of documenting the bodies of Syrians who had been executed or tortured to death. (Even dictatorships want assurance that their orders are being carried out.) In August 2013, Caesar defected, taking with him tens of thousands of photographs showing at least 6,786 bodies of people who had died in Syrian government custody. Most had been detained by just five intelligence agency branches in Damascus, their bodies sent to at least two military hospitals in Damascus between May 2011, as Assad crushed an initially peaceful uprising against his rule, and when Caesar fled Syria.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) documented 157,634 people who had been arrested between March 2011 and August 2024 and who remained in custody. Many had been forcibly disappeared. These included 5,274 children and 10,221 women. For some, we will only now begin to learn of their fates.
foreignpolicy.com
In March 2011, popular discontent with the Ba'athist government led to large-scale protests and pro-democracy rallies across Syria, as part of the wider Arab Spring protests in the region. Numerous protests were violently suppressed by security forces in deadly crackdowns ordered by Bashar al-Assad, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths and detentions, many of whom were civilians. The Syrian revolution transformed into an insurgency with the formation of resistance militias across the country, deteriorating into a full-blown civil war by 2012
In the last couple of days, rebel forces reached Damascus, Bashar al-Assad fled and the Syrian army command announced the Assad regime had ended.
On the same day, Russia confirmed Assad was safe in the arms of Vladimir Putin and had stepped down.
We can all see the scenes unfolding in Syria. People who had fled are returning after many years away and political prisoners are released, after being held in extremely cruel conditions, almost beyond belief.
Assad is accused of chemical attacks, dropping barrel bombs on civilian populations, bombing hospitals, schools, apartment buildings, mass executions, starvation, deprivation and displacing two thirds of Syria's pre war population.
Several governments outside Syria have filed charges against al-Assad's officers and gained convictions under the concept of universal jurisdiction, France seeks al-Assad on charges for the Sarin attack in Ghouta.
With the Syrian leader now on the run, the prospect of bringing him to justice for his crimes is no longer theoretical.
The catalogue of Bashar al-Assad’s atrocities quickly transcends the toolbox of a run-of-the-mill dictator. It is deeply moving, if horrifying, to see people emerge from his prisons after decades in custody. In most countries, families can learn about their loved ones in detention, but few people departed from Assad’s worst prisons, leaving the inmates completely isolated. Their families had no idea if they were still alive.
Many were not. A Syrian military police photographer who adopted the code name “Caesar” had the unenviable task of documenting the bodies of Syrians who had been executed or tortured to death. (Even dictatorships want assurance that their orders are being carried out.) In August 2013, Caesar defected, taking with him tens of thousands of photographs showing at least 6,786 bodies of people who had died in Syrian government custody. Most had been detained by just five intelligence agency branches in Damascus, their bodies sent to at least two military hospitals in Damascus between May 2011, as Assad crushed an initially peaceful uprising against his rule, and when Caesar fled Syria.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) documented 157,634 people who had been arrested between March 2011 and August 2024 and who remained in custody. Many had been forcibly disappeared. These included 5,274 children and 10,221 women. For some, we will only now begin to learn of their fates.
Assad Must Face Justice for His Government’s Atrocities
With the Syrian leader now on the run, the prospect of bringing him to justice for his crimes is no longer theoretical.
foreignpolicy.com
The writer, Henry Ergas, is a highly esteemed, widely published and erudite economist and historian. But probably uses too many big words for some 
