The trial of Syria’s former Grand Mufti, Ahmed Bareddin Hassoun , began at the Palace of Justice in Damascus on Thursday.
Hassoun led Syria’s official religious establishment under the Assad regime and became one of its most prominent and notorious spokespeople after the Syrian uprising.
He is accused of incitement to murder and abusing his position as a mufti to provide religious and political legitimacy to the Assad regime, as well as participation in war crimes and crimes against humanity, through his connections to senior regime figures.
The hearing was presided over by Judge Fakhr al-Din al-Aryan , who defected to the Syrian opposition in 2013 and was previously sentenced to death by the Assad regime. The ‘Barrel Bomb Mufti’ When protests broke out against the Assad regime in 2011, Hassoun described them as a “terrorist conspiracy supported from abroad”.
He later issued fatwas justifying the bombing of civilians and called the regime’s use of indiscriminate barrel bombs “liberation”. This led him to be dubbed “the Barrel Bomb Mufti” by Syrians.
In 2011, in a televised speech, he issued a threat to European countries, saying that Syria would train suicide bombers to attack them if they attacked Syria.
One of his most chilling acts was to issue a written fatwa in 2017 authorising the execution of detainees held at the notorious Sednaya Prison , where the Assad regime killed thousands of detainees, many through torture and starvation.
His public trial follows that of Atef Najib , the notorious security chief of Daraa province and Bashar al-Assad’s cousin, accused of overseeing the torture of children and killing of protesters in the early days of the Syrian revolution.
Many Syrians expressed relief that Hassoun was finally in the dock.
“The trial of the former grand mufti Ahmed Hassoun is a step forward in the transitional justice process. It brought happiness to the hearts of many people who supported or were part of the Syrian revolutionary movement, particularly those from Aleppo,” Maalem Abdulrazak, a Syrian charity director from Aleppo province told The New Arab .
Hassoun was from Aleppo and built a base of influence there, legitimising regime violence in the city and even calling for parts of it to be “annihilated”.
“Hassoun's name carries considerable symbolic weight: he was regarded as one of the regime's most prominent figures, and his positions consistently supported and endorsed all the crimes committed by the Assad regime against the Syrian people,” Abdulrazak added.
Shafik Mustafa, an Islamic scholar and researcher, told The New Arab that Hassoun’s trial “had a lesson for anyone who supports oppression”.
“Every person, regardless of their status, should reject injustice by whatever means they are able, according to their capacity,” he added. From Islamic preacher to Assad apologist Hassoun appeared much older and more gaunt at the trial and his prison uniform contrasted strongly with the religious attire he used to wear in public.
He was arrested in March 2025, four months after the Assad regime fell, at Damascus Airport while trying to leave the country.
Judicial investigations subsequently began into allegations of incitement and moral complicity in crimes committed under the Assad regime.
Born into a well-known religious family in Aleppo in 1949, Hassoun began preaching at an early age, serving as an imam and Friday prayer preacher in several mosques.
He earned a doctorate in Shafi’i Islamic jurisprudence as well as degree in Arabic literature.
In 2002, he was appointed the Mufti of Aleppo Province. He became Grand Mufti of Syria in 2005 after the death of his predecessor Ahmed Kuftaro.
Prior to the outbreak of the Syrian uprising in 2011, Hassoun tried to present himself as an advocate of religious coexistence, holding advisory positions in regional Islamic institutions.
All this changed after the uprising broke out when he began frequently appearing on state media to provide religious justification to the Assad regime’s brutal attacks on civilian areas.
However, whether the regime appreciated his efforts on its behalf is questionable. In 2021, the Assad regime abolished the post of Grand Mufti, in a highly controversial move. The post was brought back after the overthrow of the Assad regime.
Hassoun’s trial is seen as a key event in Syria’s fraught transitional process, which has been marred by accusations regarding lack of transparency and accountability.