“Bashar al-Assad wins re-election in Syria as uprising against him rages on
Assad captures another seven-year term after winning almost 90% of the vote”

(amp.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/04/bashar-al-assad-winds-reelection-in-landslide-victory)

You can argue the elections were a sham, or weren’t democratic per se, but as for what we know, he was elected by the Syrian people, who overwhelmingly cast their ballots for this ‘dictator’.

Maybe Assad is an ‘anti-freedom soldier’ as you say, but even more so are the Jihadist terrorists waging war to topple his regime anti-freedom soldiers, who seek to setup a brutal, oppressive Islamic Caliphate theocracy. At least Assad’s Syria is secular, with religious freedom, peace (before the foreign-backed Jihadists were sent in) and minorities are protected. The same can not be said for his Jihadist opponents...