The uncle of Syrian President Assad has been stripped of his vast European property empire today after being found guilty of misappropriating public funds in Syria and laundering the spoils, by a French court. The Paris court imposed a four-year prison sentence on 82-year-old Rifaat al-Assad, which he is unlikely to serve given his advanced age. The younger brother of the late Syrian president Hafez al-Assad - father of the incumbent president - was tried for crimes allegedly committed between 1984 and 2016, including aggravated tax fraud and misappropriation of Syrian funds. The court dismissed charges against Assad for the period 1984 to 1996, but found him guilty of organised laundering of funds embezzled from the Syrian public purse between 1996 and 2016. The late Syrian president Hafez al-Assad (right) with his youngest brother Rifaat (left) at a military ceremony in Damascus.

Source: Daily Mail June 17, 2020 16:23 UTC