But he was surprised to discover who one of the VIPs dining in his midst was: his country’s ousted dictator, Bashar Assad. Photograph: Louai Beshara/AFP via Getty ImagesFor more than five decades, the Assad family name has been synonymous with brutal autocracy. A rebel fighter stands in front of a defaced mural of Bashar Assad inside a captured police station in Homs, Syria in 2024. In exile, Bashar Assad and his brother are said to have taken different approaches to how they treat those who once served them. Russian officials eventually intervened, offering to transfer the aides to a Soviet-era military site with other lower-ranking regime officers.

Source: The Irish Times December 23, 2025 14:22 UTC