The trial of Syrian regime leader Bashar Al-Assad’s uncle is set to begin in Paris Monday over charges of building up a property empire in France using Syrian public funds.
Rifaat al-Assad,85, was one of the former pillars of the Damascus regime, and the commander of the "Defense Brigades", a special forces that were instrumental in the devastating attack on the city of Hama in central Syria in 1982.
This year, an investigating magistrate ordered he stand trial for organized money laundering in building a 90-million-euro ($99.5-million) property portfolio in France.
But the defendant's seat in the court will be empty, as the younger brother of Syrian ex-president Hafez Assad will miss the trial "for medical reasons.” according to his lawyers.
The trial, which is expected to last until December 18, relates to "crimes allegedly committed between1984 and 2016, including; aggravated tax fraud and embezzlement of Syrian public funds, yet he denies all these charges.
It is worth mentioning that, al-Assad was forced to leave Syria into exile in 1984 after leading a failed coup against his brother Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria from 1971 until his death in 2000.
His lavish lifestyle in Europe with his four wives and his 16 children and entourage, numbering about two hundred people, has raised eyebrows.
In France only, he owns two palaces and about forty apartments in best neighborhoods, in addition to a palace with a horse farm in Val-d'Oise near Paris and a number of offices in Lyon.
Moreover, Al-Assad and his family also own over 500 properties in Spain. These were seized by authorities in 2017.
He affirmed that he collected his wealth from the Saudi royal family’s donations amounting to more than one million dollars per month.
Despite documents provided by his lawyers, proving that he had received grants of approximately $ 25 million between 1984 and 2010, investigators recorded transfers of only $ 10 million from Saudi Arabia.
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