The National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) demanded Monday, December 16 in Paris, four years in prison and a 10 million euro fine against Rifaat Al-Assad, uncle of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. He is accused of fraudulently building a real estate fortune in France, estimated at 90 million euros.
The prosecutor also requested the confiscation of all French property – already seized – from this former pillar of the Damascus regime, tried for “Organized gang laundering” aggravated tax fraud and embezzlement of Syrian public funds, between 1984 and 2016.
The PNF notably requests the confiscation of two mansions, around 40 apartments located in the beautiful Parisian districts, a castle and stud farm in the Val-d'Oise …
Rifaat Al-Assad has been on trial since December 9 by the Paris Criminal Court; this is the second trial in France of a case of "Ill-gotten gains", after that of Vice-President of Equatorial Guinea Teodorin Obiang.
"A knowingly hidden heritage"
82-year-old British resident Rifaat Al-Assad, who apologized on medical grounds, denies the charges. He was forced into exile in 1984 after a failed coup d'état against his brother Hafez Al-Assad, father of the current president, Bashar al-Assad. With his family and a group of 200 faithful, he, who had no family fortune in Syria, had amassed a real estate empire in Europe, which would arouse suspicion belatedly.
In France, his property is held by companies nestled for a time in tax havens and now in Luxembourg, managed by his relatives: "A knowingly concealed heritage, a knowingly maintained confusion", according to the prosecutor.
Rifaat Al-Assad ensures that his fortune comes from the generosity of Abdallah, crown prince then Saudi king, who would have financed him continuously between the 1980s and his death in 2015. An explanation swept aside by the prosecutor, who unsupported judge. The magistrate tried to show that these millions came rather from embezzlement of Syrian public funds, in particular from an exile negotiated with Hafez Al-Assad and financed by Damascus.
In this case, which dates back thirty-five years, the prosecution has no physical evidence of Syrian payments to Rifaat al-Assad. Otherwise, the prosecutor relied in particular on testimony – strongly disputed by the defense – alleging embezzlement, and corroborated according to him by the Syrian budget, and on the analyzes of a geographer specialist in Syria. The defense will plead for release Tuesday.
