section_path: Aftermath/Proposed handover of Bashar al-Assad to Syria
section_name: Proposed handover of Bashar al-Assad to Syria
paragraph_text: Proposed handover of Bashar al-Assad to Syria
  
  Immediately following the fall of Damascus, advancing rebel forces dispatched scouting teams to locate and apprehend Assad, and announced a US$10 million reward for information leading to his capture.
  
  The Syrian caretaker government, and later the transitional government, demanded his extradition so that he can be tried for crimes against humanity and potentially other charges stemming mainly from his violent crackdown on the Syrian revolution.
  
  The first request for Russia to hand over Bashar al-Assad reportedly came in January 2025, during the first visit by a Russian delegation to Syria after the fall of the Assad regime. The request was allegedly made by then de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, who later became president, to a Russian delegation led by Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov. The Kremlin refused to comment on the matter. On 22 March 2025, Al Arabiya reported, citing unnamed sources, that al-Sharaa had asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to hand over Bashar al-Assad for trial in Syria.
  
  On 7 April 2025, Russian Ambassador to Iraq Elbrus Kutrashev told the Islamic Republic News Agency that Assad's settlement in Moscow was conditional on his total withdrawal from media and political activities. He added that the asylum granted to Assad and his family had been personally ordered by Putin and would remain unchanged. In an interview with The New York Times in April 2025, al-Sharaa said that Syrian officials requested Russia to extradite Assad as a condition for allowing their military presence in Syria, but Russia refused.