A Damascus court convened Sunday for the second session of proceedings against senior figures from Bashar al-Assad's former regime, marking what victims' families and observers are calling a landmark moment in Syrian transitional justice. The only defendant physically present is Atef Najib, Assad's cousin and former security chief in Deraa (the southern Syrian city regarded as the birthplace of the 2011 uprising), who is accused of ordering the torture of teenagers who had written anti-government graffiti — an act widely seen as having ignited the Syrian revolution. Bashar al-Assad and his brother Maher will be tried in absentia, both having fled to Russia following the regime's collapse, while survivors from areas such as the Damascus suburb of Tadamon, where mass graves are currently being excavated, say they are finally hoping for answers after years of impunity.