Assad and brother sentenced to death, Colombia quake kills 111 as Libya refinery burns
Developed over time first seen 2 months ago
A criminal court in Damascus sentenced Syria’s former president Bashar al-Assad and his younger brother Maher to death in absentia on 11 August, finding them guilty of offences including premeditated murder, torture, arbitrary detention, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The ruling concerned the repression that followed the 2011 uprising, particularly in Daraa, and also covered other former regime figures. The Assads had left Syria for Russia after their government fell in late 2024; the verdict was therefore not immediately enforceable against them. Syrian law provides further review procedures for death sentences.
The developments came as Colombia dealt with the immediate aftermath of a magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck on 10 August, centred near San José del Palmar in Chocó. Initial reports put the death toll at 111, with damaged and collapsed buildings across western Colombia and rescue operations under way; later official and media updates raised the toll, so the headline’s figure reflects an early estimate. In Libya, firefighters fought a large fire at the Zawiya oil complex after drone strikes hit a petrol-storage tank and nearby energy infrastructure. Libya’s National Oil Corporation warned that continued attacks could disrupt operations, while no group had claimed responsibility at the time.
- Bashar and Maher al-Assad were sentenced to death in absentia by a Syrian court.
- Colombia’s 7.4-magnitude earthquake initially killed at least 111 people; the toll later increased.
- Drone attacks set fire to a storage tank at Libya’s Zawiya oil complex, with no immediate claim of responsibility.
Full account
A Syrian court has sentenced ousted president Bashar al-Assad and his younger brother Maher to death in absentia, in what is being described as a landmark moment in the country's efforts to reckon with the legacy of the Assad family's decades-long rule. The Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus, presided over by Judge Fakhr al-Din al-Aryan, found the pair guilty of crimes against humanity, war crimes, premeditated murder, torture and arbitrary detention carried out during Syria's 14-year civil war. Both men fled to Russia after the swift collapse of the regime in December 2024 and were tried without being present in court.
The same ruling extended to several other former regime figures. Atef Najib, a cousin of Assad and the former head of political security in Daraa, was also condemned to death for his part in the violent crackdown on the anti-government protests that broke out in southern Syria in 2011 and eventually spiralled into full-scale civil war; he had been arrested in January 2025. Six further ex-officials were handed death sentences in absentia on similar charges of murder and torture. According to the presiding judge, Assad bore ultimate responsibility as the regime's principal decision-maker, having directed state institutions towards the abuse of Syrian citizens. Damascus's transitional justice authority hailed the verdicts as a significant step towards accountability, while further trials of regime-linked figures, including another Assad cousin, continue.
Separately, Colombia has been assessing the aftermath of its most powerful earthquake so far this century. The country's national geological service recorded a magnitude 7.4 tremor striking near San José del Palmar in the western department of Chocó, with a depth of roughly 103 kilometres. Within hours, the agency logged 18 aftershocks and warned that further tremors were likely. More than 12,000 residents across some 900 towns and villages reported having felt the shaking, monitored via the service's network of over 200 seismic stations spanning the country — underlining how widely the quake was felt well beyond the epicentre.
Reports have also referred to a serious fire at a refinery in Libya, though the material available did not include verified detail on its cause, casualties or scale, so no specifics can be responsibly reported here. Taken together, the three developments reflect a day of major news across quite different registers: a judicial reckoning with a fallen Middle Eastern dictatorship, a natural disaster testing South American emergency response, and an industrial incident in North Africa still being assessed. Readers should treat figures for the Colombian earthquake's human toll and the Libyan refinery fire as provisional pending fuller official reporting.
Where outlets differ
Only two of the three stories in the headline were supported by the source material provided: the Assad death sentence (a Syrian/regional news report) and the Colombia earthquake (a bulletin from Colombia's Servicio Geológico Colombiano). No source document was supplied covering the Libya refinery fire, so no details of it could be verified or included beyond acknowledging the report exists.
The Colombia source is a technical geological bulletin focused on seismic parameters (magnitude, depth, aftershock count, felt-reports) rather than casualties; it does not itself state a death toll of 111, which appears only in the supplied headline and could not be corroborated from the source text.
The Syria source frames the story primarily around transitional justice and regime accountability, giving significant weight to statements from Syrian officials (the National Transitional Justice Authority) praising the verdict, whereas a Western outlet might place more emphasis on questions of enforceability given the defendants are sheltering in Russia.
More coverage
- Associated Press — Magnitude 7.4 quake rocks western Colombia, killing at least 111 people
- Servicio Geológico Colombiano — Servicio Geológico Colombiano updates information on the San José del Palmar earthquake
- Associated Press — Drone strikes hit Libya's key western oil town and a car bomb kills an officer in the east
- Al-Monitor — Syrian court sentences Bashar al-Assad, brother to death for war crimes
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