French top court upholds prison sentence of Rifaat al-Assad

French top court upholds prison sentence of Rifaat al-Assad
September 7, 2022, 6:36 pm

A photograph of Rifaat al-Assad from 1984. (AFP)

France's highest court on Wednesday (Sep 7) sealed a ruling that found Rifaat al-Assad, an uncle of Syrian regime leader Bashar al-Assad, was guilty of acquiring millions of euros' worth of French property using funds diverted from the Syrian state, Reuters reported.

The verdict, the Anews said, citing Reuters, by the Cour de Cassation, which comes at the end of a long process in which al-Assad has raised various appeals, confirmed a four-year prison sentence handed on Rifaat al-Assad, who had returned to Syria last year after losing access to his French wealth.

"The assets held by Rifaat al-Assad in France seized during the proceedings will be definitively confiscated", said Sherpa, a France-based group of human rights lawyers whose criminal complaint in 2013 triggered the proceedings.

Assad, 85, had lived in exile, mostly in France, since the mid-1980s, after being accused of trying to seize power from his brother, then-President Hafez al-Assad, Bashar's father.