عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

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)
    Damascus, London - Asharq Al-Awsat
TT
20
TT

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.”

Most Viewed

 
Arab World

At Least 1 Killed in Israeli Airstrikes on Southern Lebanon 

This pictures taken from the southern Lebanese area of Marjeyoun shows smoke billowing from the site of Israeli airstrikes on the hills of the southern Lebanese village of Nabatieh on May 8, 2025. (AFP)
This pictures taken from the southern Lebanese area of Marjeyoun shows smoke billowing from the site of Israeli airstrikes on the hills of the southern Lebanese village of Nabatieh on May 8, 2025. (AFP)
TT
20
TT

At Least 1 Killed in Israeli Airstrikes on Southern Lebanon 

This pictures taken from the southern Lebanese area of Marjeyoun shows smoke billowing from the site of Israeli airstrikes on the hills of the southern Lebanese village of Nabatieh on May 8, 2025. (AFP)
This pictures taken from the southern Lebanese area of Marjeyoun shows smoke billowing from the site of Israeli airstrikes on the hills of the southern Lebanese village of Nabatieh on May 8, 2025. (AFP)

A series of Israeli airstrikes Thursday in southern Lebanon killed at one person and wounded eight others, the Lebanese Health Ministry said. 

The Israeli military said it bombed infrastructure belonging to the Hezbollah group that included weapons and tunnel shafts as part of an underground network. Israel accused Hezbollah of regrouping and maintaining its infrastructure in violation of a US-brokered ceasefire agreement in November that ended its war with Hezbollah. 

Hezbollah did not immediately comment on the strikes near the southern city of Nabatieh, which came as calls mounted for the Lebanese state to disarm the group.  

Hezbollah says it will not lay down its weapons as long as Israel controls part of south Lebanon and continues striking deep inside the country. Israel still has control of five hilltop points on Lebanese territory following its ground invasion last year. 

“The government has not and will not spare any effort to expedite the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory,” Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam told reporters after meeting with officials in the northeastern city of Baalbek, which was battered by the war that killed 4,000 people. 

Hezbollah says it has largely disarmed south of the Litani River, while Israel says its fighters are trying to regroup. 

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said public institutions in the area were closed after the attacks. Families rushed to schools to take their children home. 

Since the ceasefire went into effect in November, Israeli strikes have continued. Israel has struck southern Beirut three times after two rocket attacks from southern Lebanon hit northern Israel, allegedly fired by the Palestinian Hamas group in March. 

After their previous war in 2006, Israel and Hezbollah were supposed to withdraw from southern Lebanon below the Litani River and leave it under the sole control of the Lebanese military alongside UN peacekeepers. That would eventually extend to the rest of the country, with the aim to disarm all non-state groups in Lebanon, including Hezbollah and end Israeli military presence.