Today, Wednesday, the Court of Cassation in Paris rejected the last legal endeavor available to Rifaat al-Assad, the uncle of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and finally confirmed the 4-year prison sentence imposed on him in France, in the case of “illegally” acquired real estate valued at 90 million euros. .
Rifaat al-Assad, the 85-year-old former Syrian vice president, was convicted on appeal on September 9, 2021 of laundering Syrian public funds as part of an organized gang between 1996 and 2016, and his 4-year prison sentence was confirmed by the Court of First Instance.
He was also found guilty by the Paris Court of Appeal of aggravated tax fraud and clandestine employment, and ordered the confiscation of all real estate deemed fraudulent.
After complaints filed by Transparency International and a human rights organization, the French judiciary opened an investigation in 2014, during which two palaces and dozens of apartments in luxury neighborhoods in the capital, offices and property in London were confiscated.
After the decision of the Court of Cassation - which is the highest court in France - the value of the confiscated property will be returned to Syria permanently, as part of a new mechanism for returning assets fraudulently obtained by foreign leaders and approved by the French Parliament in 2021.
It is noteworthy that Rifaat al-Assad was the commander of the Defense Brigades, a security force that took over the bloody suppression of the movement in the Syrian city of Hama in 1982.
Pro-Syrian regime media reported that Rifaat al-Assad returned to Syria in the fall of 2021, after more than 3 decades in exile.
In 1984, Rifaat left the country after a failed attempt to overthrow his brother Hafez al-Assad, and went to Switzerland and then to France.
He had no personal wealth in Syria, and was able to build a real estate empire in Europe, especially in Spain, as well as in France and Britain.
Rifaat al-Assad was awarded the Legion of Honor in France in 1986 for "services he performed."
This is the second case related to "unlawful gains" being handled by the French judiciary, after the case of Teodorin Obiang, the eldest son of the President of Equatorial Guinea, who was sentenced in July 2021 to a suspended three-year prison term and a fine of 30 million euros.
There are other ongoing investigations targeting, in particular, the family of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and the family of former Gabonese President Omar Bongo Ondimba, who was charged by the French judiciary against nine of his children in the spring and last July.