Seven Syrian suspects in dock for second hearing on March coastal massacres

Trials widely seen as test of transitional government’s ability to deliver impartial justice for widespread abuses

Syrian security personnel stand guard outside the courtroom in Aleppo. Anagha Nair for The National

Seven suspected Bashar Al Assad loyalists went on trial on Thursday at Aleppo's Palace of Justice, in the second of three public hearings into Syria's coastal massacres in March.

The seven are accused of taking part in violence as part of pro-Assad militias. The cases of another seven defendants – members of Syria’s new security apparatus accused of carrying out sectarian killings against coastal Alawites – are expected to be heard in a third session.

The court building in Aleppo was surrounded by armed members of Syria’s security forces, as families of the accused waited anxiously outside. Raeefe Naouf, 68, travelled from Latakia to watch her son, Hassan Halebiye, take the stand.

“I paid 60,000 lira to get here, in a taxi,” said a tearful Ms Naouf, who clutched prayer beads in the cold. She said her son was previously detained by the Assad regime and spent a year and a half in prison after posting a video in support of Ghouta, a Damascus suburb heavily bombed by the regime.

She said he son was arrested in August. At the court’s first session last month, he was arraigned on counts including murder, conspiracy and involvement in creating civil strife, charges more or less identical with those of the other six pro-Assad suspects.

Raeefe Naouf, the mother of defendant Hassan Halebiye, outside the court in Aleppo. Anagha Nair for The National

The seven defendants from Syria’s current Defence Ministry face charges including murder. The trials are widely seen as a test of the Syrian government’s ability to deliver impartial justice for offences, regardless of whether those accused are loyal to the state or perceived remnants of the Assad regime.

Chief judge Zakaria Baccour presided over the court, with defendants brought out of a holding cell. Mr Halebiye, who was first to present his defence, said he was in Lebanon working at a restaurant in March 2025, and that he only returned to Syria in late July – shortly before his arrest. He added that previous confessions had been coerced out of him under “torture” by an intelligence branch in Latakia.

“Only one of these pictures is me, and it was taken in 2022 when I was a reservist in the army,” he responded when presented with four pictures of armed people.

In further questioning, defendants were asked about the alleged burial of weapons and destruction of CCTV cameras. One of the accused was interrogated about alleged co-ordination with Russian and Israeli forces.

Osama Ajjoum, a lawyer in Aleppo who attended the trial, said broadcasts on the public hearings should ensure transparency and equality between parties. “The observer is no longer just those in the courtroom; everyone watching the segment or programme is an observer,” he says.

Under Assad rule “the law was often subject to the whims of a particular entity, or even the judge himself might be capricious”, he said. "I hope that the law will truly be the ultimate authority, applied equally to everyone.”

He added, however, that an essential pillar of justice has not yet been met. “I still feel there is no transitional justice because our judiciary is not independent,” he said. “The judiciary is independent when it is not affiliated with a ministry, when a judge can try a minister or the president if they err; only then can transitional justice be achieved absolutely.”

The hearing in Aleppo is the second of three linked to the violence on the coast in March. Anagha Nair for The National

Rami Hanjeek, the lawyer for two of the accused, said the defence has requested witness testimony. Mr Hanjeek is also the lawyer for five of the accused from Syria’s Defence Ministry.

“The public prosecutor has also requested some witness testimonies. After hearing the prosecution witnesses, we get to present our witnesses, and then we’ll decide our testimonies,” he said.

The events on Syria’s coast were sparked by an armed uprising of militias loyal to Bashar Al Assad, which culminated in a bloody crackdown by the government, mostly against the Alawite minority.

According to the UN Syria Commission of Inquiry, at least 1,400 people, most of them civilians, were killed in the violence. It also found that though the government did attempt in some cases to protect civilians, people from certain factions linked to the government “extrajudicially executed, tortured and ill-treated civilians” in Alawite-majority villages.

The hearings reflect the Syrian government’s commitment to conducting open trials “to break the cycle of violence and impunity, enhance transparency and protect the rights of defendants from both sides”, said Judge Jomaa Al Anzi, head of the National Independent Committee for Investigation and Fact-Finding into the unrest.

“Millions of Syrians are waiting for the expansion of the transitional justice process, despite the enormity of the case,” he added. The process “requires preparation to hold thousands of criminals accountable under the former regime”.