A cousin of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for the murder of a military officer last summer, a security source said on Friday.
“A court in latakia on Thursday sentenced Suleiman al-Assad to 20 years in prison for the murder of Colonel Hassan al-Sheikh,” the source said.
The murder took place in August on the road between latakia city and Qardaha, the ancestral village of the Assad family.
latakia province is a regime stronghold and heartland of the Alawite minority to which the president, Sheikh and Suleiman al-Assad all belong. The incident raised tensions within the community.