Death sentences and prison terms handed down to those convicted of involvement in Syria's coastal events

The Syrian judiciary issued sentences yesterday, including death and life imprisonment for two loyalists to the former regime, and a 20-year prison term for an officer in the Ministry of Defense under the new authorities, for their involvement in the bloody violence that occurred on Syria’s coast last year.

In March 2025, the coastal region witnessed three days of sectarian violence. The authorities accused armed groups loyal to deposed President Bashar al-Assad of instigating the unrest through attacks that killed dozens of their members.

The trials began in November of the same year in Aleppo, in northern Syria, and involved 14 individuals: seven accused of initiating the violence, including former military personnel from the Assad era, and seven members of the Ministry of Defense under the current authorities.

The judiciary announced yesterday the verdicts for four of them, including three loyalists to the deposed president and one from the Ministry of Defense, with the remaining defendants to be tried sequentially.

Judge Zakaria Bakkar, head of the Military Criminal Court, announced in the courtroom the death sentence for one of the defendants, convicted of the crimes of “assault aimed at inciting civil war and sectarian strife, and participation in an armed gang with the intent to confront public forces, resulting in the deaths of more than two persons.”

Another defendant was convicted of “participation in an armed gang with the intent to commit crimes of murder, robbery, and looting” and sentenced to “life imprisonment.” Meanwhile, an officer in the Ministry of Defense was convicted of “intentional murder” and sentenced to “20 years in prison, with credit for the period of pretrial detention.”