Syria’s former vice president Rifaat Al Assad has died, two friends close to the family that lost power in the country just over a year ago told The National on Wednesday.
“He died this morning of natural causes,” one of the sources clarified, without giving the location of his death. He was 88.
He was the brother of the late president Hafez Al Assad and uncle of former president Bashar Al Assad, who was ousted last year by rebels, ending decades of Assad dynasty rule.
Rifaat Al Assad was considered one of the most violent figures in the country’s modern history. In March 2024, Swiss prosecutors charged him with war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in 1982.
That year, the Syrian city of Hama, about 200km north of Damascus, was besieged by forces loyal to then-president Hafez Al Assad and his younger brother Rifaat. He was given the nickname “The Butcher of Hama” for overseeing troops who carried out mass killings, torture and widespread destruction in the city.
Following last year’s rebel takeover, it is believed that Rifaat Al Assad and members of his family fled the country, with Lebanon as their first destination. His nephew, president Bashar Al Assad fled to Russia with his family.
For a man who insisted that he had no interest in money, Rifaat Al Assad had a remarkable aptitude for amassing a staggering wealth, from mansions to a network of high-end flats in some of the most chic parts of Paris and other European cities.
In 2020, a French court found him guilty of acquiring millions of euros' worth of French property using funds diverted from the Syrian state, and sentenced him to four years in jail. All of his property in France − estimated to be worth €100 million ($117.5 million) − was ordered seized, as was a property in London valued at €29 million.
A year later, he returned to Syria after almost four decades in exile in Europe. His return put him mostly beyond the reach of western legal systems.
