First trial of coastal massacre suspects underway in Syria’s Aleppo

The first trial of more than a dozen suspects linked to March's violence on the Syrian coast, which saw hundreds of people killed, commenced on Tuesday at the Palace of Justice in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.

The session was broadcast live on Syria’s state news channel Al-Ikhbariya Al-Souriya, in what appears to be an attempt to bring some transparency to the proceedings.

The violence began on 6 March last year when supporters of the regime of ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad attacked government security forces.

The Syrian Ministries of Defence and Interior sent reinforcements to the area to put down the uprising, but pro-government militias and armed civilians also became involved in the fighting.

Government forces and allied militias are accused of massacring hundreds of local civilians, most of them from the Alawite religious sect which Assad belonged to.

The violence left 1,426 people dead, most of them civilians, according to a national commission of inquiry.

Seven men, including former military personnel, accused of attacking government forces, and seven members of the forces loyal to the new authorities, appeared in court.

"The court is sovereign and independent," said judge Zakaria Bakkar as the trial opened in northern Syria's Aleppo.

Assad's supporters are being prosecuted for "sedition, incitement to civil war... attacks against law enforcement, murder, looting, and vandalism", according to the indictment.

The seven accused from government forces are being prosecuted for "premeditated murder".

Late last month, Syrian Justice Minister Mazhar al-Weiss confirmed that the judiciary would conduct public trials for those accused of involvement in crimes on the Syrian coast, as well as in sectarian violence in July in Druze-majority Suweida Province, to "ensure transparency and hold perpetrators accountable, and prevent any party from escaping punishment".

The next hearing for the supporters of Assad's ousted regime was set for 18 December, and the trial for members of government forces is set for 25 December.

The commission said it had verified serious violations leading to the deaths of mostly civilians, and identified 298 suspects.

It added that 238 members of the security forces and army had been killed in attacks attributed to Assad's supporters.

The government sent reinforcements to the region after this, with the commission estimating their number at 200,000 fighters.

Syrian and international monitoring groups reported sectarian massacres, in which whole families were killed by government forces, armed groups allied with the government, and armed civilians, including summary executions.

Fadel Abdul Ghani, director of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, told The New Arab’s sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the trial was "a positive step in the right direction". 

"This is what we demanded from the first days of the violations committed against civilians on the coast. These trials are a form of accountability," he said.

"These trials are a real message to victims and their families that the government’s promises to hold perpetrators accountable are finding their way to transparent, public implementation — which is what we, as human rights organisations, want. All conditions for fair trials must be met, and they must include defendants from the security and armed forces as well as remnants of the former regime, equally and with full legal rights."

Agencies contributed to this report.