Member of the Syrian National Coalition’s political committee, Yasser Al-Farhan, said that the French judiciary’s ordering of trial of Rifaat al-Assad is a step in the right direction to restore the Syrian people’s assets which have been stolen for decades by the Assad family.
Rifaat Al-Assad will stand trial in France for acquiring millions of euros worth of French property assets using funds diverted from the Syrian state and other charges, including organized money laundering, aggravated tax fraud and misappropriation of Syrian state funds.
Al-Farhan said that this step will have a positive impact on investigating other corruption charges against the Assad family, which will pave the way for similar trials for the senior regime figures who are accused of looting money from the Syrian people.
“Bringing Rifaat al-Assad to trial would rejoice the hearts of tens of thousands of people in the Syrian city of Hama where the Defense Companies forces, which were commanded by Rifaat al-Assad, committed terrible massacres in 1982 claiming the lives of tens of thousands of civilians.”
Al-Farhan called for restoring the stolen money and handing it over to the Syrian people represented by the Syrian National Coalition and its Syrian Interim Government in order to spend it on the displaced people in the camps and to meet their humanitarian needs.
French investigating magistrate ordered he stand trial on charges of organized money laundering related to his 90 million euro property portfolio in France. The trial is scheduled to last until December 18. It concerns crimes allegedly committed between 1984 and 2016, including aggravated tax fraud and misappropriation of Syrian funds.
Last November, the Supreme Court of Spain recommended that Rifaat Al-Assad and 13 others be put on trial on charges of criminal organization and money laundering. Judge José de la Mata alleges that Rifaat Al-Assad and the others, including eight sons, have laundered money taken out of Syria in several European countries since the 1980s. (Source: Syrian National Coalition’s Media Department)
