Ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad giving a TV interview. AFP
The court convicted him over charges of "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity" during the country's civil war.
The ruling against Assad is the first under the transitional authorities who this year began trying figures from the former government, both in person and in absentia.
Also sentenced to death in the same case was Assad’s maternal cousin Atef Najib for leading the crackdown in the southern province of Daraa that led to the uprising and later the civil war.
Amid tight security, Najib stood inside a cage wearing a prisoner’s uniform as the judge read the sentence.
Assad and his brother Maher fled to Russia after insurgents marched into Damascus in December 2014.
Najib was later detained and became one of the highest-ranking officials to be put on trial.
Najib is a former Syrian army brigadier general who was head of the Political Security Branch in southern Syria’s Daraa province under Assad in 2011.
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