LONDON: The former grand mufti of Syria and a staunch supporter of the Bashar Assad regime, Ahmad Hassoun, appeared in court in Damascus on Thursday, charged with war crimes.
Hassoun, 77, was the country’s grand mufti from 2005 until 2021. He appeared before the Fourth Criminal Court for the first session regarding his involvement in crimes against humanity, incitement to murder, and other criminal offenses, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency.
He used his Friday sermons and public appearances to justify and support the Assad regime’s brutal crackdown against civilians during the country’s 13 years of civil war, which killed more than 580,000 people and forcibly displaced 13 million, according to the UN.
He became known among Syrians as the “barrel bomb Mufti” in reference to a military method used by the Syrian forces of dropping barrels stuffed with high explosives and shrapnel at civilians from aircraft. His position became largely ineffective after the Assad regime shifted its authority to the ministry of endowments in 2018.
He was arrested in March 2025 while trying to flee to Jordan through Damascus International Airport. Syria’s Attorney General Hassan al-Turba and representatives from local and international human rights organizations attended the trial.
The trial is among several others that started in recent months to try military and high-ranking civilian figures over involvement in crimes against Syrians under Assad, who fled to Russia in December 2024.
