French court upholds conviction of Assad's uncle in money laundering case
A French court last year sentenced Rifaat al-Assad to four years in prison and ordered the forfeiture of his French real estate assets.
The Paris Court of Appeals on Thursday confirmed the conviction of an exiled uncle of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad who last year was found guilty of money laundering and aggravated tax fraud.
French judges in June 2020 convicted Rifaat al-Assad, 84, of embezzling Syrian public funds to expand his vast property portfolio in France, where he now lives. Assad was sentenced to four years in prison, which Agence France-Presse reports he may not have to serve given his advanced age.
The lower court last year also ordered the forfeiture of his estimated $106 million worth of French real estate assets, including two Paris townhouses, a chateau and a number of lavish apartments. Assad says his fortune was acquired “perfectly legally” and mostly gifted to him by the Saudi royal family in the 1980s.
The former Syrian vice president fled to Europe in 1984 with his four wives and 16 children after a failed attempt at overthrowing his older brother, then-President Hafez al-Assad. Before that, he earned the nickname the “Butcher of Hama” for his role overseeing the killing of thousands in a 1982 uprising in central Syria.
