The French judicial ruling issued once morest Rifaat al-Assad did not receive much attention among the Syrians, compared to the “targeted name.” On the contrary, it led to feelings of “disappointment,” and many of them even considered it “worthless,” since it was issued nearly a year following his escape to Syria. Syria, freed from “punishment”, which he did not receive during his decades of residence abroad, especially in Paris.
Rifaat is the uncle of the head of the Syrian regime, Bashar al-Assad, and the name known to the ancient and modern Syrian generations in Syria, as the “Butcher of Hama” and the leader of the “Defense Brigades”, and “the looter of the Syrian Central Bank’s money”, before his brother Hafez exiled him to France, in the eighties last century, following their dispute over power.
Since his exile abroad, Rifaat has amassed a fortune and established a “real estate empire” that aroused many suspicions, which made him face a series of investigations with “illegal funds”, which later developed into asset confiscations, first in France, and then in Spain and the United Kingdom.
While these investigations continued and reached advanced stages once morest him, following 2021, Rifaat returned to Syria, which was “forbidden to him”, suddenly and suspiciously, without any introductions and details.
In a brief piece of news published by the semi-official Al-Watan newspaper, on October 8, 2021, it said that “President Bashar al-Assad allowed his uncle Rifaat to return to Syria.”
And to prevent his imprisonment in France following a court ruling was issued and his property confiscated, President al-Assad lifted what Rifaat al-Assad had done and said, and allowed him to return to the country like any other Syrian citizen, and he would not have any political or social role.
What is the value of judgment?
For decades, Rifaat al-Assad has been out of the media spotlight, even though his name was otherwise.
After his arrival in Syria, only some pictures were shown to him with his son residing there, and some of his grandchildren, while she did not know his place of residence and what he would do, especially since his nephew “was removed from his return, provided that he does not have any political or social role.”
He may have received the final judicial ruling issued once morest him, imprisoning him for four years, on charges of “money laundering and embezzlement of public funds”, but he realizes that the hand of punishment will not reach him. He is now in “Assad’s Syria” and not in Paris.
The French Sherpa organization, which defends the rights of victims of economic crimes, and is responsible for prosecuting Rifaat al-Assad, said in a statement on Wednesday, “This historic decision (Rifaat’s ruling), is a reminder of the importance of the concrete implementation of the mechanism for returning assets resulting from corruption, recently adopted by France. “.
The assets of Rifaat al-Assad’s money located in France will be confiscated, and the statement added that following many years of investigation and a complaint submitted by the Sherpa organization, in 2013, Rifaat al-Assad was sentenced on June 17, 2020, to four years in prison, and the confiscation of his assets in France, which is estimated at 90 million euros.
After the Court of Cassation confirmed this decision, it would permanently confiscate the assets that Rifaat held in France, which were seized in the course of the procedure. Thus, approximately 90 million euros must be returned to the Syrian people, as stipulated by the law adopted in July 2021, which established a pioneering mechanism for the return of assets resulting from corruption in France.
The Syrian lawyer and director of the France in Arabic website, Zaid Al-Azm, argues that the final verdict is “important.” He told Al-Hurra: “His escape to Syria is the biggest punishment. Now he is under house arrest and the way in which he arrived in the country is humiliating. Al-Watan newspaper indicated that He will be stripped of his social role.
The recent court rulings played a major role in Rifaat’s decision to return to the country following all these years. “If Rifaat was not certain that the judiciary was working seriously to imprison him, he would not have fled.”
Al-Azm added: “After the verdict, everyone will speak in Paris that Bashar al-Assad’s uncle is condemned. This is a great symbolism that we must seize. The judiciary exposed this system, and lifted part of it, whether Hafez the father or Bashar the son.”
For the past 40 years, “no lawsuit has been filed once morest me, apart from complaints,” until 2013, when a “action suit” arrived at the French judiciary.
Lawyer Al-Azm believes that the absence of any Syrian party from the scene was a reason for the delay in the ruling issued once morest Rifaat, especially the “sons of the old generation,” noting: “Some of these allied themselves with him. They established a joint political action. “.
For his part, Syrian lawyer and lawyer Anwar al-Bunni considered that “the value of the judgment is important in sending a message to criminals that there is no impunity. There will be an international arrest warrant for Rifaat, like Jamil al-Hassan and Ali Mamlouk.”
Al-Bunni told Al-Hurra: “No matter that his escape was a setback, but that does not mean that nothing happened. There is a file once morest him in Switzerland for committing war crimes.”
And he continues, “A public trial may be opened, even if he is not present (in Switzerland), to convict him and his older criminal brother, and the entire criminal junta,” according to al-Bunni’s expression.
‘Untimely justice’
Rifaat’s escape from France to Syria has sparked widespread controversy, regarding how he was allowed to move and allow him to do so, and the role of the French authorities as well, especially with open investigations once morest him.
There has been no official comment from the French authorities so far.
But the lawyer, Zaid Al-Azm, who resides in Paris, spoke of “the complicity of some elements of the Ministry of the Interior, and that the judiciary cannot bear this.” He says, “We must appreciate that there are employees of the extreme right… inside the state apparatus.”
“Marine Le Pen publicly defends the Syrian regime. She and her party have state employees, and therefore one of them can collude and smuggle Rifaat,” adds Al-Azm.
And he added, “The judiciary should not be held responsible. Had the latter not been serious, Rifaat al-Assad would not have fled regarding a year ago. Is there anyone who leaves France and sits under Bashar’s authority and under house arrest?!”
With a different point of view, the Syrian lawyer and lawyer, Ghazwan Kronfol, considered that “justice loses its value when it comes untimely and is late for the time it is supposed to be.”
In his interview with Al-Hurra website, Kronfol does not see that the final ruling once morest Rifaat al-Assad is related to the Syrian case, and his “criminal behavior towards Syrian society in the eighties and beyond…”.
He says, “The trial once morest him is in a different context, and it is related to the new position of the French authorities towards Assad, which led to the opening of well-known and old files, in terms of money laundering and tax evasion.”
“The verdict does not advance or delay anything in the cause of justice and equity for the victims of the militias that Rifaat al-Assad established, the Defense Forces and the crimes they committed in Palmyra prison and Hama, and others,” he said.
And the Syrian lawyer adds, asking: “On what basis does France open financial files of its own, while it has remained silent since the eighties until now regarding crimes classified as once morest humanity in Palmyra, Hama and other Syrian regions.”
Kronfol considers that “selective justice is not justice, and that the delayed ruling is of no value. It is too late for the will to account for the file of Rifaat al-Assad’s crimes.”
He continues: “If France was serious regarding holding it accountable, even with regard to tax evasion, why did it allow him to leave? Or did it turn a blind eye to his transfer to Syria? What happened was absurd and laughed at the Syrians,” as he put it.
The same applies to the opposition academic and politician, Yahya Al-Aridi, as he says that “the verdict once morest Rifaat is completely late,” he adds that “France has fallen short, and I do not think that it is ignorant of what he did and was doing this man.”
“The most annoying thing is that Rifaat was comfortably “Yesooh” in Europe (France, Spain, the United Kingdom) and other countries, and he was awarded a certain medal or recognition at one point in time!
Al-Aridi adds to Al-Hurra: “This is what prompts the Syrian person to ask a thousand questions regarding this external force that has an impact on global politics, and its laws related to human rights.”
Refaat was awarded the Legion of Honor in France in 1986 for the “services he performed”, and is threatened by a lawsuit in Spain, due to the suspicion of “unlawful gains” related to regarding 500 properties.
He is also being pursued by justice in Switzerland for war crimes committed in the 1980s.
Considering that “the judicial ruling has practically no value,” al-Aridi believes in it, on the other hand, that it “indicates that the person who committed a crime, even if time passes, will remain up to the attention and record this matter.”
He added, “Let Rifaat enjoy his millions, but there is a black dot next to his name, and he belongs to an authoritarian regime in the first place.”
What is the fate of millions of euros?
It was remarkable in the final court ruling once morest Rifaat that the money he illegally earned, estimated at nearly $90 million, would be “returned to the Syrian people.”
“This legal saga, which led to the historic conviction of a member of the Assad family, should not hide the fundamental issue: ensuring that the stolen assets are returned to the looted population,” said Sandra Cossart, director of the French Sherpa organization, on Wednesday.
She stressed the need to focus the French government’s efforts on implementing the corruption-related asset recovery mechanism that was adopted in July 2021, to ensure its response “in the closest possible place to the population”, as stipulated by law.
It must also follow an approach that guarantees compensation, which can be adapted to the political and humanitarian context of the country, in order to ensure that assets do not return to the circles of corruption, according to Cossart.
France severed its relations with the Syrian regime in 2012, and decided to close its embassy in Damascus in the same year, as a result of the Syrian regime’s repressive response to the peaceful demonstrators, who came out once morest it.
So far, Paris does not recognize the regime, and the same applies to its government, which raises questions regarding the course that the judiciary may take, regarding the millions of euros confiscated from the raised.
Lawyer Anwar al-Bunni explains that “a part of the amount (9 million) will go back to the French treasury, because of tax smuggling. The remaining amount, we talked regarding, will remain until the formation of a government that represents the Syrians, whether through a political solution or otherwise.”
Al-Bunni says: “We can demand money when there is a legitimate government and it obtains international recognition for a while,” adding: “There are also 800 million in Spain, and a yacht whose antiquities are estimated at millions of dollars, in addition to the accounts of Bashar and his group members.”
In turn, the lawyer, Zaid Al-Azm, considered that the judicial ruling once morest Rifaat has two parts: the first is to put his name in Interpol, and to demand the Syrian authorities to hand him over, but the probability of this matter is “less than 1%.”
As for the other part, it relates to “the confiscated funds. They are counted and confiscated in advance. Rifaat al-Assad has real estate and bank balances. Now it will be transferred to the state treasury, and it may be transferred to the affected Syrians,” but Al-Azm refers to “the burden of proving the affected parties.”
This is the second case related to “unlawful gains” that the French judiciary is handling following the case of Teodorin Obiang, the eldest son of the president of Equatorial Guinea, who was sentenced in July 2021 to three years in prison, suspended and a fine of 30 million euros.
There are other ongoing investigations targeting, in particular, the family of the former Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, or the family of the former Gabon president, Omar Bongo Ondimba, who was charged by the judiciary once morest nine of his children in the spring and last July.
