Ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad was sentenced to death in absentia by a court on Tuesday after being convicted of crimes including murder, torture, and arbitrary arrest during the nation's nearly 14-year war.This represents the initial conviction against Assad, who was overthrown in a rebel offensive in December 2024, terminating decades of iron-fisted rule by his family alongside a devastating war that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives across Syria.Assad escaped the capital Damascus as opposition fighters advanced nearly two years ago, and remains currently in Moscow. A plane carrying Assad left Damascus on Sunday 8 December, 2024, as rebel fighters entered the capital, and two officials later confirmed to Reuters that he had fled the country to head to Russia.Syrian citizens celebrate the anniversary of Assad fleeing the country in December 2025 (AFP/Getty)During a trial of former government officials on Tuesday, the presiding judge handed down a death sentence to Assad for "premeditated and intentional murder of more than one person and of children, torture, arbitrary arrest and crimes against humanity".A security official under Assad, Atef Najib, was also sentenced to death.Assad, who was born in 1965, became president in 2000 following the death of his father Hafez. He preserved his family's rule alongside Alawite sect dominance within the Sunni Muslim-majority nation, keeping Syria aligned with Iran in opposition to Israel and the US.Influenced early on by the Iraq war and the crisis in Lebanon, Assad's reign was defined by civil war stemming from the 2011 Arab Spring, when street demonstrations by Syrians seeking democracy were met by the state with deadly and lethal force.After fleeing Syria for Russia in December 2024, Syrian rebels set fire to the tomb of Assad’s father in his family’s hometown in Al-Qardahah, near Latakia, just days later.Eyewitness video released on Wednesday, 11 December, 2024 showed men gathering around flames inside the mausoleum of Hafez al-Assad.The date of the footage could not be independently verified, but the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that gunmen set fire to the tomb a day earlier, after the family ruled Syria for more than 50 years with a brutal regime.