Paris Communist politician Ian Brossat and a journalist, attacked in defamation by Rifaat al-Assad, Bachar al-Assad's uncle, for having described one of his Parisian properties as "badly acquired", were released Tuesday by the Nanterre Criminal Court.
In September 2016, in a column broadcast on RTL, the journalist Remi Sulmont unveiled the project of the mayor of Paris to build social housing on a wasteland of the sixteenth arrondissement, which Rifaat al-Assad had been expropriated.
This "ill-gotten benefit, obtained with money stolen from the Syrian people by one of the worst regimes in the world, will serve the general interest , " said Ian Brossat, Housing Assistant, according to statements reported by the journalist.
The court found that Ian Brossat's comments "rested on a precise knowledge of the case" and that, as a result, the excuse of good faith could be accepted.
In addition, the comments of the journalist, who "conducted a full and serious investigation , " do not exceed "the limits of freedom of expression," noted the court. Remi Sulmont "was aware of the results of the expropriation of Rifaat al-Assad and the judicial information opened against him," he detailed in his judgment.
An uncle of Bachar forced into exile following a failed coup
Rifaat al-Assad, Bachar's uncle forced into exile in 1984 following a failed coup against his brother Hafez, is indicted for "laundering organized tax fraud" and "misappropriation of funds since June 2016.
Several of its properties have been seized by the courts, including two mansions in Paris, a stud farm and a castle in the Val d'Oise or 3,000 m2 of offices in Lyon.
"Today, seizures by the courts at the European level are in the order of 400 or 500 million euros," said at the hearing Ian Brossat's lawyer, William Bourdon, also president of the Sherpa association, which initiated the legal proceedings against Rifaat al-Assad. "He is the record holder of ill-gotten property, he smashes all African dictators," he said.
A man also under investigation for war crimes
Rifaat al-Assad, for his part, has always maintained that he received this money from King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who wanted to finance his activities as an opponent of the Damascus regime.
In a separate procedure launched in Switzerland in 2013, Rifaat al-Assad is also being investigated for war crimes. Justice seeks to determine its role in the Tadmor massacres in 1980 and Hama in 1982, which has estimated between 10,000 and 40,000 deaths. At the time, he led the Revolutionary Defense Brigades, the elite corps of the Syrian regime.