Syria Court Issues First Sentences Over 2025 Alawite Massacres

A Syrian court has issued its first verdicts in the trial over the 2025 massacres of Alawites along Syria’s coast, sentencing three defendants to death, life imprisonment and 20 years in prison.

The military criminal court in Aleppo sentenced a member of Syria’s government forces to 20 years for premeditated murder. Two supporters of former President Bashar al-Assad received a death sentence and life imprisonment respectively, while another defendant was acquitted. Further verdicts are expected later.

The trial involves 14 defendants — seven members of government forces and seven alleged supporters of the former Assad government. The case concerns violence that erupted along the coastal region in March 2025 after attacks by former regime loyalists against interim government security forces.

A Syrian investigation found that at least 1,426 people were killed, most of them civilians. The UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria has said the violence included acts that amounted to war crimes.