Fallen ex-Syrian dictator is already serving a life sentence as he languishes in a luxury Moscow high-rise apartment, his freedom of movement gone forever. As he receives news from Damascus of his death sentence for war crimes and crimes against humanity the only consolation will be it is unlikely to happen any time soon.
His successor, former al-Qaeda operative Ahmad al-Sharaa, has already formally asked for the 60 year-old fugitive to be returned to his home country for trial. That request was politely turned down, for now, and the trial went ahead in absentia, although now it has been concluded and the death sentence decided upon.
President Vladimir Putin is unlikely for the time being to turn him over and hand him to the Syrians but that act of betrayal cannot be discounted forever. And few in Syria will mourn such a punishment happening to Assad, a president whose clamping down on a student demonstration led to 14 years of slaughter.
The dusty streets of Syria from Damascus to the Iraqi, Lebanese, Iraqi, Jordanian and even Israeli borders ran with blood for all of those years - often after a decision by Assad. He lived a fabulously opulent life and squandered it all on the altar of oppressive violence resulting in the deaths of 620,000 Syrians and the displacement of 14 million people.
