A year after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, Syria faces the delicate challenge of balancing justice, peace, and reconciliation. For many Syrians, delayed or denied accountability has intensified frustration, as families of the forcibly disappeared and victims of past atrocities continue to seek answers.
Personal Stories Highlight Urgent Need for Justice
For Ziad Mahmoud Amayri, the pain is deeply personal. Sitting before photographs of ten lost family members, Amayri declared, “There are two options: Either the government gives me justice, or I take justice myself.”
Amayri’s anger is directed at Fadi Saqr, a former commander of the National Defence Forces (NDF), a pro-Assad militia linked to atrocities such as the 2013 Tadamon massacre, where dozens were reportedly executed. Saqr, however, denies responsibility and currently walks free under what government officials describe as “safe passage” granted by Syria’s transitional leadership.
Hassan Soufan, a member of the Committee for Civil Peace, explained that Saqr’s release was part of a broader strategy to reduce tensions among Alawite communities. “No one can deny that this safe passage contributed to averting bloodshed,” Soufan said. Yet for many Syrians in Tadamon and beyond, including Amayri, such decisions undermine confidence in the transitional justice process.
Syria’s Fragile Peace and Rising Retaliation
Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who assumed power after Assad’s fall in December 2024, pledged to prioritize “achieving civil peace” and prosecuting those responsible for past atrocities. However, sectarian clashes and revenge killings have continued to plague the nation.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), over 1,300 people died in retaliatory actions by November 2025, not including casualties from violent clashes on the Syrian coast in March or in Suwayda in July, which together claimed thousands of lives.
Abdel Basit Abdel Latif, head of the National Commission for Transitional Justice, warned that stalled justice risks Syrians taking matters into their own hands. “It is certain that any Syrian citizen will feel that if the transitional justice process does not start properly, they will resort to their own ways,” he said.
Transitional Justice Bodies and Challenges
The government has established two committees to oversee transitional justice. One, led by Abdel Latif, focuses on broad violations committed under Assad, while the other addresses the fate of an estimated 300,000 missing Syrians, many of whom were detained in Assad-era prisons or buried in mass graves.
Despite these efforts, activists like Danny al-Baaj of the Syrian Forum argue that progress remains slow. “A framework is still missing. A special law on transitional justice is still missing,” he said. Families of the disappeared, such as activist Wafa Ali Mustafa, continue to demand transparency and communication from the authorities.
Mohammad Reda Jalkhi, head of the National Commission on Missing Persons, stressed the immense logistical challenges: “We need to do very hard work on building capacity, preparing infrastructure, collecting and analyzing data, and equipping laboratories. All this does not happen overnight.”
Collecting Evidence and Building a Case
Critical work has been underway to document Assad-era war crimes. Hasan Al Hariri, for over a decade, led a team that smuggled more than 1.3 million documents out of Syria, preserving evidence from intelligence offices and police stations. These documents now form a rich archive linking atrocities to regime officials, potentially up to Assad himself.
Al Hariri explained the importance of collecting evidence during the conflict: “Countries that saw conflicts, such as Bosnia, began work after five years and started collecting evidence, so much was gone. We worked during the conflict, so the evidence was alive.”
While this archive offers a head-start for prosecutions, national trials are still a long way off due to ongoing reforms of the Syrian legal system and the need to establish courts, judges, and administrative infrastructure.
Public Expectations and the Path Forward
Despite delays, Syrians remain hopeful for public trials and accountability. “All of us want to see these public trials, want to see the whole process of transitional justice starting,” said al-Baaj. Families like Amayri’s not only seek legal accountability for perpetrators like Saqr but also hope to locate the graves of their loved ones and have a place to mourn.
Wafa Ali Mustafa emphasized that even communication from authorities would be meaningful: “Families aren’t demanding mass graves now; they just want to know what you are doing.”
Syria’s transitional justice process faces a delicate balancing act: pursuing accountability while maintaining peace. The coming months will test whether the new leadership can deliver justice effectively or risk leaving Syrians feeling abandoned by a system still in its infancy.
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