Was Maher al-Assad, brother of ousted Syrian president, spotted in Moscow?

Videos circulating on social media Tuesday purportedly show Maher al-Assad, the younger brother of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, at a cafe in Moscow. The younger Assad’s whereabouts are unknown, and he is wanted for alleged war crimes related to the Syrian civil war.

What happened: Social media users posted an image of a man that resembles Maher al-Assad at a cafe. In a video widely shared on social, he is seen looking downward, likely scrolling on his phone and sitting across from another man who was not identified.

The emblem for an establishment called Myata is visible in the video. Myata is a chain of lounges with locations in Moscow, other Russian cities, Turkey, Kazakhstan and various other countries in the Caucasus, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Many social media users claimed the video was taken in Moscow.

Myata did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Al-Monitor was unable to verify the authenticity of the video and whether it showed Maher.

Who is Maher al-Assad? Maher, 57, is Assad's younger brother who commanded the Syrian military’s elite Fourth Division throughout the Syrian civil war. Agence France-Presse reported in March that he fled to Iraq via helicopter during the final days of the war in December and then made his way to Russia.

French judicial authorities issued an arrest warrant for Maher al-Assad, along with the former president and two Syrian generals in November 2023 on charges of complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity. The charges relate to the 2013 chemical attack in the Damascus suburbs, among other incidents. The warrant was upheld by a French court last June. 

The Syrian civil war ended in December when rebel forces led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a former al-Qaeda affiliate, defeated President Assad’s forces. President Assad and his wife and children fled to Russia shortly before the rebel takeover. The younger Assad did not know of his brother’s plans to escape to Russia, according to AFP. Syria is now led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who commanded HTS during the war. Russia supported the Syrian government during the war. 

Maher al-Assad was widely accused of participating in Syria’s multibillion-dollar Captagon trade. The New Lines Institute in Washington noted in a Tuesday report that several seizures of the drug carried out by the new government have taken place at warehouses and farms owned by Maher.

A social media account bearing Maher's name has posted criticism of Syria's new rulers since December. In May, the account accused Sharaa of "raising the flag of his masters in Damascus" after the United States reopened its embassy in the Syrian capital. 

Know more: Al-Monitor reported in 2021 that Maher was part of a faction within the Syrian elite that favored reducing Iran’s presence in Syria.

Iran intervened on behalf of the Syrian government in the civil war in 2011, providing military support in the fight against HTS and other rebel groups. Iran pulled out of Syria in December shortly before the rebel victory.