DAMASCUS — Atef Najib appeared in the Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus on Sunday for the second session of his trial on charges including murder, torture and responsibility for massacres. Najib, a brigadier general and a cousin of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, has been charged with at least 10 crimes.

Najib appeared inside a cage wearing a striped prison uniform. Sunday marked the first substantive day of the proceedings, following a preparatory session on April 26.

Relatives of victims, members of the National Transitional Justice Commission and representatives of international legal and humanitarian organisations attended the hearing. After an open session lasting about an hour, the court moved into a closed session for the protection of some witnesses.

Seventy-five plaintiffs have filed cases against Najib and are expected to testify in court. The charges against him stem in part from his role overseeing political security in Deraa province during Assad's rule, a position he held at the beginning of the Syrian uprising.

Najib was head of the Political Security Department in Deraa when teenagers who scrawled antigovernment graffiti on a school wall were arrested and tortured, an episode that became a catalyst for a broader uprising. The Syrian war that followed has killed an estimated half a million people.

The Ministry of Interior's General Security forces arrested Najib in January 2025 in Latakia province during a security campaign targeting remnants of the former government. He had been head of political security in Deraa at the beginning of the Syrian uprising before the conflict escalated across the country.