The Court of Cassation will rule on September 7 on the appeal brought by Rifaat al-Assad, the uncle of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, sentenced on appeal to four years’ imprisonment in the second case of “ill-gotten gains” judged in France.
In September, the 84-year-old former vice-president of Syria was found guilty by the Paris Court of Appeal of organized money laundering and embezzlement of Syrian public funds between 1996 and 2016, being sentenced to same penalty as at first instance.
The court ordered the confiscation of all of his fraudulently acquired real estate, valued at 90 million euros, and further condemned him for laundering aggravated tax fraud and for the concealed work of domestic employees.
The defense of Rifaat al-Assad, who maintained that his fortune came from donations from Abdallah, crown prince then king of Saudi Arabia, appealed to the Court of Cassation, which examines the proper application of the law and not the facts.
During the examination of the appeal on Wednesday, the lawyer advising Rifaat al-Assad asked the high court to censure the decision.
Me Emmanuel Piwnica maintained that, in the event that a “transfer” of money had taken place from the coffers of the Syrian State, Rifaat al-Assad could not be prosecuted for the laundering of these funds, insofar as the decision had been taken by his brother Hafez al-Assad, then president and therefore criminally irresponsible.
He further argued that the confiscation could not be legally pronounced and that the Court of Appeal had not given reasons for this sentence.
In this case, two mansions, dozens of apartments, an estate with a castle and stud farm as well as offices were seized.
The Advocate General recommended the rejection of the appeal, considering that the criminal irresponsibility of the Head of State did not “render impossible” the prosecution.
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“To say that the secret handing over of a sum of 300 million dollars to a member of his family (…) is a manifestation of the sovereign power of the Syrian State is an affirmation that cannot be taken as a objective truth,” he said.
He also considered that in confiscating the property, the court had “correctly balanced the seriousness of the facts and the personal situation of the defendant”.
“The dismissal of Mr. al-Assad’s appeal will (…) confirm your recent case law on ill-gotten gains”, for her part pleaded Me Catherine Bauer-Violas, lawyer on the board of Sherpa, civil party.
In July 2021, the Court rejected the cassation appeal of Teodorin Obiang, Vice-President of Equatorial Guinea, making final his conviction in the first “ill-gotten gains” case tried in France.