Three prominent officials linked to Syria's security apparatus were sentenced to life imprisonment in a Paris courtroom on Friday, in what was described by victims' families as a victory for the hundreds of thousands who have been tortured and disappeared.
Ali Mamlouk, former head of the National Security Bureau; Jamil Hassan, ex-director of the air force intelligence service; and Abdel Salam Mahmoud, former head of investigations for the service in Damascus, were found guilty of complicity in crimes against humanity, including imprisonment, torture, forced disappearance and murder.
The four-day trial took place in their absence despite attempts by the court to contact them in Syria.
“It's a great victory. I couldn't ask for more,” said Obeida Dabbagh, who filed a complaint in France after the detention in 2013 and subsequent death in prison of his brother Mazzen, a senior education adviser at the French school in Damascus, and his 20-year-old son, Patrick, an arts and humanities student.
The three men were also found guilty of involvement in acts of extortion due to their role in overseeing the expulsion of Mazzen's wife and daughter from their family home in 2016 to the benefit of security officials, including Mahmoud himself.
Hope for further trials
Mazzen and Patrick were arrested as part of the Syrian government's crackdown on protests which then turned into a civil war.
They died in a detention centre known for its pervasive use of torture and high death rate.
Their bodies were never returned to their relatives, who said they had not engaged in protests and were arrested for reasons unknown.
It's a wonderful first step in the legal recognition that the regime of Bashar Al Assad is a regime of criminals
Clemence Bectarte,
lawyer
“I hope this will not be the first such trial and that others will follow,” Mr Dabbagh told reporters outside the courtroom.
Addressing his dead relatives, he added: “Fate has chosen you as standard bearers for all Syrians who were unable to find justice with a court that sentenced their executioners.”
Mr Dabbagh and his wife Hanane, who was also a civil party in the case, received a lengthy round of applause from supporters, including many Syrians who had relatives that died in detention in Syria or had themselves survived imprisonment.
“This life sentence targets some of the highest ranking officials of the Syrian security services and therefore President [Bashar] Al Assad himself ,” said lawyer Patrick Baudouin, honorary president of the International Federation of Human Rights in France.
Fellow lawyer Clemence Bectarte said: “It's a wonderful first step in the legal recognition that the regime of Bashar Al Assad is a regime of criminals.”
'You want to bring me to The Hague?'
The court upheld the international arrest warrants issued by judges against the three men in 2018. They are all believe to currently reside in Syria, and Mamlouk is now a special adviser to Mr Al Assad.
Syrian lawyer Mazen Darwish, who told the court about the torture he endured during his 2012-2013 detention in Damascus, said that he felt “complicated emotions”.
“To be honest, I'm sorry that this did not take place in Syria,” he told The National. “I feel sorry that this is mostly symbolic. At the same time, we deserve this.
“We need to keep fighting for justice to avoid a new circle of violence in Syria.”
During his hearing, he said that he was interrogated by Hassan, who asked him whether he wanted “to bring him to The Hague”, in a reference to the International Criminal Court.
“It was said in a mocking but serious tone,” said Mr Darwish.
Ahead of the trial, the investigating judges said it was “sufficiently established” that Patrick and Mazzen Dabbagh “like thousands of detainees of the air force intelligence suffered torture of such intensity that they died”.
The conflict in Syria has killed more than half a million people, displaced millions, and ravaged Syria's economy and infrastructure.
Trials over abuses in Syria have taken place elsewhere in Europe, notably in Germany. In those cases, the people prosecuted held lower ranks and were present at the hearings.
The trial in Paris followed seven years of investigation carried out by a French judicial war crimes unit.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
