The first trial of some of the hundreds of suspects linked to deadly violence in Syria’s coastal provinces earlier this year started on Tuesday.
State media reported that 14 defendants appeared at the Palace of Justice in Aleppo following a monthslong, state-led investigation into the clashes in March involving government forces and supporters of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Seven of the suspects in the court were al-Assad loyalists, while the other seven were members of the new government’s security forces. A judge was heard during the televised proceedings asking the defendants if they were military or civilian.
Al-Assad’s supporters are being prosecuted for “sedition, incitement to civil war … attacks against law enforcement, murder, looting, and vandalism”, according to the indictment.
The trial follows pressure from the public and the international community for judicial reform in Syria after decades under the autocratic rule of the al-Assad dynasty.
Despite initial state media reports that charges could be brought against the suspects quickly, the judge adjourned the session and set the following hearings for December.
Charges against the defendants could include sedition, inciting civil war, attacking security forces, murder, looting and leading armed gangs, according to state media.
Considering the scale of the violence and the number of suspects, it is unclear how long the proceedings will take. In total, the investigating committee referred 563 suspects to the judiciary over the March clashes along the country’s Mediterranean coast.
The violence erupted there after armed groups aligned with al-Assad ambushed the security forces of the new government under Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa.
A counteroffensive then spiralled into revenge attacks and the massacre of hundreds of civilians in the region from the Alawite minority, to which al-Assad belongs.
The attacks on the Alawite community piled pressure on al-Sharaa. Since taking power in December, his government has sought to step out from diplomatic isolation and convince the US to drop crippling sanctions and boost trade to rebuild the war-torn country.
The government’s investigating committee in July concluded that over 1,400 people, mostly civilians, were killed during several days of violence.
Yet the inquiry said there was no evidence that Syria’s new military leaders had ordered attacks on the Alawite community.
A United Nations investigation in August found that violence targeting civilians by government-aligned factions had been “widespread and systematic”.
Additional sources • AP
