Syria's new transitional authorities have opened the country's first criminal trial of officials from the government of ousted president Bashar al-Assad, with Atef Najib — a cousin of the former leader and one of the most prominent figures of the old security apparatus — appearing in person before a Damascus court on 27 April. Dressed in blue-and-beige striped prison clothes and brought before the court in handcuffs, Najib faces charges of crimes against the Syrian people, including the torture of children, according to Syria's state news agency. Bashar al-Assad himself, his brother Maher, and other senior former officials were tried in absentia during the same session.

Najib, born in 1960 in the coastal city of Jableh, rose through Syria's military academy before becoming head of the Political Security Directorate in Daraa — the southern Syrian city that became the cradle of the 2011 uprising against more than five decades of Assad family rule. It was in Daraa that schoolchildren spray-painted anti-government graffiti, prompting Najib's branch to arrest the minors and hold them in detention. When prominent local figures appealed for their release, Najib reportedly responded with threats and insults, allegedly telling families: