The violence that Syrians have witnessed and suffered since 2011 did not come out of nowhere - there is a history, a background and a basis to it. And so, if we want to better understand what has happened in the country in the past 11 years, we need to travel further back in time - to the beginnings of Assad family rule in Syria. In this episode, we’re uncovering how the pillars of the Assad regime were constructed. The Syria Trials is a 75 Podcast production. This episode is hosted by Fritz Streiff with Kristina Kaghdo. It was produced by Sasha Edye-Lindner, with editorial support from Mais Katt. The voice over was provided by Maksim Abdul Latif. Translation was by Alaa Hassan. This episode was mixed by Tobias Withers. Support for our podcast comes from German Federal Foreign Office funds that are provided by the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen IFA’s Zivik Funding Programme. To find out more about our podcast, visit our website https://75podcasts.org/. Here you'll find an archive of all our episodes with their transcripts, as well as our other productions. Useful links: People’s Tribunal for the Murder of Journalists: https://ptmurderofjournalists.org/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soZj8jWEaEQ&t=22763s Sam Dagher: https://samdagherjournalist.com/ Rime Allaf: https://www.rime-allaf.com/ Rifaat al-Assad case: https://trialinternational.org/latest-post/rifaat-al-assads-return-to-syria-a-severe-blow-to-the-fight-against-impunity/ Archive clips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsyQ442Xvnw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9yPj6PUH8g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Du75qd8Pgk&t=239s