A Syrian military court has sentenced one defendant to death, another to 25 years in prison and a third to 20 years over deadly sectarian violence on Syria’s coast last year.
The Military Criminal Court acquitted a fourth defendant. The verdicts were the first in a trial that opened in November in connection with the violence in March 2025, during which pro-government fighters killed hundreds of members of the Alawite minority.
The violence erupted after forces loyal to ousted president Bashar Al Assad attacked army and security headquarters, according to a report issued in July 2025 by Syria’s National Commission for Investigation and Fact-Finding. The commission said the March 6 attacks killed 238 personnel.
The commission also documented violations against civilians in the days that followed. Its investigations concluded that the abuses were committed by individuals and small groups with varying motives, rather than as part of a systematic pattern.
The violence was among the worst outbreaks of bloodshed since President Ahmad Al Shara’s forces overthrew the Assad regime in December 2024.
A Syrian fact-finding committee report later said 1,426 people had died in the violence, including in attacks on security forces and subsequent mass killings of Alawites.
UN investigators said in August last year that war crimes were probably committed by interim government forces and fighters loyal to Syria’s former rulers.
