ONE of southern Spain’s most infamous expats has died at the age of 88 in Dubai.
The uncle of exiled Syrian dictator, Bashar al-Assad, was accused of plundering Syria’s wealth and sinking tens of millions of stolen ‘black money’ in Europe, especially on the Costa del Sol and in nearby Gibraltar.
Investigators in Madrid allege Rifaat used state power in Syria to engage in corruption, smuggling and other illegal activity to build a fortune estimated by some witnesses at billions of euros.
The money was then laundered through a complex network of offshore shell companies, 29 of which were registered to the Rock.
The Assad family’s ties to Spain date back to 1986, when they purchased 244 parking spaces through a Gibraltar-based company.
The Assad network used these offshore firms, managed by family members and allies, many based in Marbella, to purchase Spanish property.
In total, the network acquired 507 properties worth €695 million, including over 80 units in the Gray d’Albion complex in Puerto Banus.
Authorities seized these properties and froze related bank accounts in 2017 and two years later, a Spanish judge recommended that the case against Rifaat and 13 others in the network proceed.
However, no one involved has been convicted yet in Spain and Rifaat evaded the trial on medical grounds.
Separately, Rifaat was convicted in France in 2020 for money laundering and embezzlement.
He has also faced investigations in Switzerland for alleged war crimes related to the 1982 Hama massacre.
Facing conviction in France and the seizure of his European assets, Rifaat al-Assad returned to Syria in October 2021.
The so-called ‘Butcher of Hama’ earned his nickname over the large-scale massacre of his own civilians in Hama in 1982 where 10,000 civilians were killed, largely by gassing.
His nephew, Bashar al-Assad, would later use his uncle’s model to suppress dissent during his rule.
Many of the two men’s cousins and wider family also have property on the Costa del Sol.
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