Syria's Rifaat al-Assad flew to Dubai, officials say

BEIRUT,— Rifaat al-Assad, the uncle of Syria’s ousted president Bashar al-Assad, has flown from Beirut to Dubai in recent days, according to two Lebanese security officials, Reuters reported.

The move comes after the 1982 war crimes charges were brought against him in Switzerland for his role in violently suppressing a revolt in Syria over four decades ago.

The officials told Reuters that multiple members of the Assad family had traveled to Dubai from Beirut, though some chose to remain in Lebanon following the fall of Bashar al-Assad on December 8, 2024. They also noted that Lebanese authorities had not received any arrest requests from Interpol for Rifaat or other members of the Assad family.

The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter.

Rifaat al-Assad, who is now in his late 80s, is the brother of the late Syrian president Hafez al-Assad. He is accused of leading elite military forces that carried out a brutal crackdown on a 1982 uprising by the Muslim Brotherhood in the city of Hama, killing thousands. Reports from the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) in 2022 claimed that between 30,000 and 40,000 civilians were killed in the assault.

Swiss prosecutors charged Rifaat al-Assad with war crimes and crimes against humanity for his involvement in the killings and torture in Hama, citing the principle of universal jurisdiction. The Swiss Attorney General’s Office has since referred him for trial, but in recent weeks, it was suggested that the case could be postponed due to his declining health. Rifaat denies the accusations against him.

The 1982 massacre is often seen as a precursor to the later violence that Bashar al-Assad used to quell the uprising in 2011.

Islamist rebels in Hama had seized control of the city in early December 2024, and their leader Ahmed al-Sharaa also known as Abu Mohammad al-Golani remarked that the revolution would “cleanse the wound that has persisted in Syria for 40 years,” referencing the brutal suppression by Rifaat and his forces.

Rifaat al-Assad was once a key figure in the Syrian government, helping his brother seize power in 1970 through a military coup. However, after a failed attempt to take control of the presidency in the 1980s, he went into exile.

Over the years, he lived in Switzerland, Spain, and France. In 2020, a French court convicted him of using stolen funds from the Syrian state to acquire luxury properties. He returned to Syria in 2021.

In related news, Lebanese authorities detained the wife and daughter of Rifaat’s son, Duraid, at Beirut’s airport on Friday for attempting to travel using expired passports with altered details.

Lebanese Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi previously stated that Bouthaina Shaaban, a senior advisor to the Assad regime, had departed Beirut after entering Lebanon legally. Mawlawi also confirmed that other Syrian officials had entered Lebanon illegally and were being pursued.

Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said this week that the country would cooperate with any Interpol requests, including the arrest of former Syrian intelligence officer Jamil Hassan, who U.S. authorities accuse of war crimes committed under Bashar al-Assad.

(With files from Reuters)