Today, Thursday, the Paris Court of Appeal confirmed a four-year prison sentence imposed on Rifaat al-Assad - the uncle of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad - after convicting him of accusing him of fraudulently collecting assets in France estimated at 90 million euros.
The 84-year-old former vice president, who has lived in exile since 1984, was convicted of “money laundering within an organized gang, embezzlement of Syrian public funds and tax evasion” between 1996 and 2016. Rifaat al-Assad was absent when the verdict was issued and did not attend the trial.
As decided by the Court of First Instance, the judiciary will confiscate all immovable property involved in the case, and the defense team immediately announced that it will file an appeal before the Court of Cassation.
In this file, the judiciary confiscated two palaces and dozens of apartments in Paris, a mansion with land around it and a horse farm in Val-d'Oise in the Paris region, as well as offices in Lyon, in addition to 8.4 million euros of property sold.
This property belonged to Rifaat al-Assad and his relatives through companies in Panama, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg.
During the two trials, the defense team confirmed that the source of Rifaat al-Assad's money was "completely legal", noting that it was "huge assistance" from the Saudi Crown Prince - and later - King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, from 1980 until the date of his death in 2015.
It is known that Rifaat al-Assad was a former commander of the Defense Brigades, and was widely held responsible for suppressing the 1982 uprising against the rule of the late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad and killing thousands of people.