Rifaat al-Assad, the uncle of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, was sentenced on Wednesday in Paris to four years in prison for fraudulently building in France a vast real estate heritage estimated at 90 million euros, including the court ordered the confiscation. In this case of “ill-gotten gains”, Rifaat al-Assad, 82, absent from the trial for “medical reasons” but represented by his lawyers, was notably found guilty of laundering by an organized gang of embezzlement of Syrian public funds, between 1996 and 2016.
Rifaat al-Assad, British resident at the head of a real estate empire in Europe who presents himself today as an opponent to his nephew Bachar al-Assad, is also condemned for laundering of aggravated tax fraud as well as for the concealed work of domestic workers. He was, however, acquitted on facts covering the period 1984-1996, for legal questions. Among the property confiscated by justice in France are two mansions in the beautiful Parisian districts, around forty apartments, a castle, stud farms in the Val-d'Oise ... A property was also seized in London.
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Denouncing a decision "which has no objective basis", his lawyers said they would "immediately appeal". In the eyes of the court, which pointed to facts "of exceptional gravity" notwithstanding the age of Rifaat Assad, "concordant elements confirm the existence of embezzlement of public funds at the expense of the Syrian State and for the exclusive benefit of Rifaat al-Assad ”. In a statement sent to the press, his lawyers reaffirmed that "there is not a penny of funds from Syria on file" and that "all the identified flows have a legal origin".
Former pillar of the Damascus regime, Rifaat al-Assad was the head of the elite forces of internal security, the Defense Brigades, which had in particular repressed in blood an Islamist insurrection in 1982. He keeps a nickname, "the butcher of Hama ". Forced into exile in 1984 after a failed coup against his brother Hafez al-Assad, he settled in Switzerland and then in France with his family and 200 faithful. He who had no family fortune in Syria had then built a real estate empire valued today at 800 million euros, mainly in Spain but also in France and Great Britain, which belatedly aroused suspicion.
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