DARAA, Syria — Sitting in the living room of his family home here in southwestern Syria, Mouawiya Saysneh recalled the first time he confronted Atef Najib in court. “When I saw him,” Saysneh said, “tears fell from my eyes.”
The two met face-to-face in April 2026, at the Palace of Justice in Damascus. The 66-year-old Najib was one of nine Assad-era officials being tried that day, but the only defendant present at the proceedings, which authorities have labeled Syria’s first legal reckoning with the crimes committed by Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship.
“I had a lump in my throat,” Saysneh recalled. “I felt immense happiness to see him detained but still, the cost was too high. Many Syrians died for this moment.”
