<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/09/luxury-cars-labels-syrians-assad-family-residences>
"As prisoners were set free from their subterranean jail cells around Damascus,
shocked crowds roamed the ousted former president Bashar al-Assad’s mansions to
grab what they could carry – and marvel at the trappings of his wealth.
Pictures from the presidential palace showed a man carrying a beige plush chair
over his shoulder as people roamed the tiled floors beneath intricate carved
wooden ceilings. In another image, a smashed chandelier lay in a courtyard
beneath an ornate sloping staircase, a crumpled Syrian flag bunched among the
broken glass. More images showed wooden furniture and fittings that had been
carried into the garden outside as people attempted to haul them away.
Video showed one man running through one of Assad’s houses in the neighbourhood
of al-Maliki, over its plush red carpets, shiny marble floors and past a rack
of clothes including a Dior garment bag.
“I’m in the president’s house!” he shouted breathlessly, running through rooms
unable to believe what was happening, pausing at one point to throw a portrait
of Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria for decades before handing power to his son,
to the floor with a crash.
The halls and opulent bedrooms of Assad’s mansions appeared eerily empty, save
for looters and spectators, after the former leader often referred to as “the
butcher of Damascus” fled to Moscow with his family. The whereabouts of many
other notable figures from the inner circle of the Assad regime remained
unknown, amid rumours they had also fled the country as insurgent forces closed
in, their mansions also left empty.
The state department estimated the net wealth of the Assad family at up to
£1.6bn in a 2022 report to Congress, adding this remained an estimate due to
their extensive collection of family assets “that are believed to be spread out
and concealed in numerous accounts, real estate portfolios, corporations, and
offshore tax havens”.
The Assads, they added, had deep “patronage relationships with Syria’s largest
economic players, using their companies to launder money from illicit
activities and funnel funds to the regime. These networks penetrate all sectors
of the Syrian economy.”
While the Assad family and their friends enjoyed the trappings of their wealth,
Syrians starved. A 2022 World Bank report said 14.5 million people, almost 70%
of the population, lived in poverty while extreme poverty affected one in every
four people."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
