France to return Syria €50mil stolen by Assad’s uncle

DAMASCUS: French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday on a visit to Syria that Paris will return more than 50 million euros (US$57 million) stolen by the family of former ruler Bashar al-Assad to the country.

During his landmark visit to Damascus, the first of a European Union head of state since Assad fell in late 2024, the two countries signed several agreements focusing on development and reconstruction after more than a decade of civil war.

One of them involves the return of money that France had confiscated from Rifaat al-Assad, the ousted leader’s uncle.

Macron told a joint press conference with Syrian counterpart Ahmed al-Sharaa that “more than 50 million euros from the seizure of ill-gotten gains by the family of the former dictator… will be returned to the Syrian people to finance concrete development projects in the territory”.

The declaration of intent signed by both countries’ foreign ministers said that the two nations will “begin the process of returning 51 million euros from the seizure of Rifaat al-Assad’s ill-gotten gains, confiscated by the French justice system”.

Rifaat went into exile in 1984 after a failed attempt to overthrow him, moving to Switzerland then France, and later presenting himself as an opponent of his nephew Bashar, who succeeded Hafez in 2000.

In 2021, he returned to Syria from France to escape a four-year prison sentence for money laundering and misappropriation of Syrian public funds.

Two years later, Rifaat appeared in a family photo alongside Bashar, the ruler’s wife Asma and other relatives.

Shortly after Bashar’s ousting, Rifaat crossed into Lebanon and then flew out of Beirut airport, a Lebanese security source said at the time, without specifying his final destination.

His family announced his death in January, aged 88.

Rifaat’s role in a February 1982 massacre as part of a crackdown on an armed revolt by Islamist group the Muslim Brotherhood earned him the nickname “the Butcher of Hama”, referring to the central Syrian city.

The death toll from 27 days of violence, which took place under a media blackout, has never been formally established, though estimates range from 10,000 to 40,000.

Swiss prosecutors had accused Rifaat of a long list of crimes, including ordering “murders, acts of torture, inhumane treatment and illegal detentions” while an officer in the Syrian army.