Moment cousin of fallen Syrian dictator Assad is paraded in courtroom cage as he goes on trial accused of mass shootings and torturing children

A relative of fallen Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has become the first official with ties to the regime to be prosecuted.

Atef Najib, the ousted leader’s cousin, appeared emotionless as he appeared in a cage in his striped prison uniform as he appeared in court accused of mass shooting and torturing children.

Assad and his brother Maher, who fled to Moscow as Islamist forces approached the capital, will be tried in absentia.

Naguib, whose head was shaved, was seen perched on the corner of a wooden bench at the Central Palace of Justice in Damascus as a throng of people filmed and photographed him through metal bars.

He was a former brigadier general and chief of political security in the southern province of Deraa, where uprisings against the oppressive regime first broke out in 2011.

In February of the same year, he called for the end of the regime, ordering the arrest of the perpetrators who painted graffiti on the walls of the city of Daraa.

Police have arrested two teenage boys after they saw their names written next to disturbing graffiti sprayed on the wall outside their school.

The youths were tortured and beaten while in prison until the real criminals, aged between 18 and 30, confessed.

The treatment of schoolchildren under Najib’s command led to further demonstrations, leading to police opening fire on protesters on March 18, killing several people.

The disgraced official, head shaven and handcuffed, was perched on the corner of a wooden bench as a crowd of people filmed and photographed him through the metal bars.

Fallen dictator Bashar al-Assad and his brother Maher, who fled to Moscow as Islamist forces approached the capital, will be tried in absentia.

In April 2011, another young boy named Hamza al-Khateeb disappeared after a protest. The body of the 13-year-old boy was delivered to his family in a severely dismembered state.

After the brutality, Necib, who was branded as the ‘Butcher’ for killing his own people, was dismissed from his post by Assad. However, he was returned to the same duty in northwestern Idlib province.

Security forces’ crackdown on peaceful pro-democracy protests sparked a civil war that has killed more than half a million people and displaced millions more.

As the civil war progressed for 13 years, Naguib was increasingly sidelined by the regime.

After Assad fled the country in December 2024 following the government’s overthrow by rebels, he remained in Damascus and was arrested in January 2025.

The trial of Najib, 65, is part of a move by Syria’s current authorities, under the new government of President Al Shara, to bring the Assad regime’s worst criminals to justice.

Assad was granted asylum by Vladimir Putin in December after a blitzkrieg led by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham ended a 13-year civil war and six decades of autocratic rule by the Assad family.

Najib was a former brigadier general and chief of political security in the southern province of Deraa, where uprisings against the oppressive regime first broke out in 2011.

Assad was granted asylum by Vladimir Putin Picture: Assad met with Putin during his visit to Moscow in 2017, when he was President of Syria.

Assad is wanted on charges of premeditated murder, torture and incitement to civil war.

Opening Najib’s trial, judge Fakhr al-Din al-Aryan said: ‘Today we begin the first hearings of transitional justice in Syria.

‘This includes a defendant in custody who is in the dock, as well as defendants who are fugitives from justice.’

A judicial source, who did not want to be named, said the hearings were the beginning of preparations for the trial of Assad, his brother and other prominent figures such as Naguib.

Amjed Youssef, wanted for a mass murder of civilians in April 2013, was arrested on Friday after he was found hiding in a village in Hama province.

In 2022, images emerged showing Syrian soldiers directing blindfolded victims into a pit before shooting them. Youssef was filmed commanding what is now known as: Tadamon massacre.

His mother, Fatima Makhlouf, the sister of Naguib and Assad’s mother, Anisa Makhlouf, came to power entirely thanks to Assad’s position.

The Makhlouf family has quickly become the richest family in Syria, with strong control over its finances and state news organizations.

Necib’s trial will continue on May 10.

The judicial source said the in-person hearings will also include Wassim al-Assad, another relative of the ousted president, former grand mufti Ahmed Badreddin Hassoun, as well as military and security officials arrested by the new authorities in recent months.

Syria’s new authorities have repeatedly promised to provide justice and accountability for the atrocities committed under Assad.