Rifaat al-Assad 'Avoids' French Prison

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's uncle Rifaat al-Assad (AP)
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's uncle Rifaat al-Assad (AP)
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Rifaat al-Assad 'Avoids' French Prison

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's uncle Rifaat al-Assad (AP)
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's uncle Rifaat al-Assad (AP)

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has allowed his uncle, Rifaat al-Assad, to return to the country “to avoid imprisonment in France”, after a few decades in exile.

Syrian Al-Watan newspaper reported on Friday that Rifaat al-Assad, 84, returned to Damascus after spending nearly 30 years in Europe as a dissident.

He arrived in Damascus on Thursday, nearly a month after a Paris appeals court upheld a four-year prison sentence issued against him last year for misappropriating public funds in Syria, laundering the spoils and building a vast property portfolio in France with illegal gains.

His confiscated French real estate assets are worth an estimated 90 million euros ($106 million).

“In order to prevent his imprisonment in France… President Assad rises above what Rifaat al-Assad has said and done and allows him to return to Syria,” al-Watan said.

Firas, Rifaat al-Assad’s son, said on his Facebook page that his father’s return to Syria came following a “deal between French and Russian intelligence and the Syrian regime.”



UN Chief Urges Yemen's Houthis to Release Aid Workers

(FILES) UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers a speech at the opening of the 58th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, on February 24, 2025. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)
(FILES) UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers a speech at the opening of the 58th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, on February 24, 2025. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)
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UN Chief Urges Yemen's Houthis to Release Aid Workers

(FILES) UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers a speech at the opening of the 58th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, on February 24, 2025. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)
(FILES) UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers a speech at the opening of the 58th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, on February 24, 2025. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday demanded Yemen's Houthis to release dozens of aid workers, including UN staff, a year after their arrest.

The Iran-backed Houthis, who control much of the war-torn country, detained 13 UN personnel and more than 50 employees of aid groups last June, AFP reported.

"I renew my call for their immediate and unconditional release," Guterres said in a statement issued by the office of his special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg.

"The UN and its humanitarian partners should never be targeted, arrested or detained while carrying out their mandates for the benefit of the people they serve," he added.

The Houthis at the time claimed an "American-Israeli spy cell" was operating under the cover of aid groups -- an accusation firmly rejected by the UN.

Guterres also lamented the "deplorable tragedy" of the death in detention of a World Food Program staffer in February.