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Bashar al-Assad, Syria's fugitive former president, has been sentenced to death in absentia for crimes committed during the country's nearly 14-year war. The Criminal Court in Damascus unanimously convicted the former president and his brother Maher al-Assad, who both fled to Russia, as well as their cousin Atef Najib, ex-head of political security in Daraa, of premeditated murder, torture, and crimes against humanity in a landmark trial. The crimes committed by Najib, who led the deadly 2011 crackdown on protesters in Daraa that sparked the uprising and subsequent civil war, include murder, the killing of children under 15, and torture leading to death, the court said