What the death sentence for former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad tells us about the future of the country

The judge who sentenced Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia last week was himself sentenced to death in absentia by the same regime years earlier. Irony in its purest form. Judge Fakhr al-Din al-Aryan defected from the Ministry of Justice in 2013 joining the judicial bodies of the opposition. His reinstatement as judge …