Syria’s Double-Edged Gavel

Dispensing justice in the wake of a fallen regime is rarely a clean affair. In Syria, where Bashar al-Assad’s collapse at the end of 2024 left a landscape fractured by years of autocracy, the new administration in Damascus faces the uncomfortable task of judging both its vanquished enemies and its own overzealous enforcers. The verdicts delivered by the Military Criminal Court at Aleppo’s Justice Palace illustrate this precarious balancing act.

The immediate target of the court's severity were figures from the old order. Pro-Assad loyalists Al-Waddah Ismail and Maher Ali received death sentences after being convicted of inciting civil war, stoking sectarian strife, and leading armed gangs against public forces. A third defendant, Maher Othman, received a 12-year prison sentence. State media outlet SANA detailed how these men took part in an armed revolt launched from coastal mountain hideouts in March 2025, a desperate insurgency by former regime soldiers and militia members following Assad’s flight from power.

Yet the court’s docket extended beyond the old regime's remnants. For the first time, personnel affiliated with the new government found themselves in the dock for acts of violence against civilians. Mohammed Bakour, a member of the Defence Ministry’s 82nd Division, was handed a 20-year prison term for intentional homicide. Another security member, Ammar Abdul Aal, received three years for torture, while two other co-defendants were acquitted.

These trials stem from three blood-soaked days in March 2025, when the coastal heartlands of Tartous, Latakia, and Hama descended into horrors. What began as an assault by pro-Assad fighters—which claimed the lives of 238 government soldiers—triggered a massive counter-offensive. Around 200,000 pro-government reinforcements descended upon the predominantly Alawite regions. A government investigative committee identified 298 suspects involved in serious violations, documenting widespread murder, looting, torture, home destruction, and sectarian insults between March 7 and March 9.

By the time the immediate bloodshed subsided, at least 1,426 people lay dead, the vast majority of them civilians from the Alawite minority. The Aleppo court had already signaled its intent in mid-September, handing down a death sentence, a life term, and a 20-year sentence to three defendants in related coastal cases, while acquitting a fourth. Whether these court decisions represent a genuine commitment to rule of law or merely an expedient exercise in public relations remains an open query for Damascus. Constructing a viable state requires holding all armed actors accountable, regardless of which flag they fought under.

Written by Freya Stensrud freya.stensrud@alpineweekly.com