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The wife and daughter of one of the deposed Syrian presidents Bashar Assad His relatives were arrested Friday at Beirut airport, where they tried to fly out with allegedly forged passports, Lebanese judicial and security officials said. Assad’s uncle had left the day before.
Rasha Khazem, the wife of Duraid Assad — the son of former Syrian Vice President Rifaat Assad, Bashar Assad’s uncle — and their daughter, Shams, were smuggled into Lebanon illegally and were trying to fly to Egypt when they were arrested, according to five Lebanese officials familiar with the case. They were detained by the Lebanese General Security. Rifaat flew out a day earlier with his real passport and no one stopped him, officials said.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly.
Swiss federal prosecutors in March indicted Rifaat for war crimes and crimes against humanity for allegedly ordering the killings and torture more than four decades ago.
Rifaat Assad, the brother of Bashar Assad’s father, Hafez Assad, the former Syrian ruler, led an artillery unit that shelled the city of Hama and killed thousands of people, earning him the nickname “The Butcher of Hama.”
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Earlier this year, Rifaat Assad was indicted in Switzerland for war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with Hama.
Tens of thousands of Syrians are believed to have entered Lebanon illegally on the night of Assad’s fall earlier this month, when rebel forces swept into Damascus.
Lebanese security and justice officials said more than 20 members of the former Syrian army’s notorious 4th Division, military intelligence officers and others linked to Assad’s security forces were arrested earlier in Lebanon. Some of them were arrested when they tried to sell weapons.
Lebanon’s public prosecutor’s office also received an Interpol notice seeking the arrest of Jamil al-Hassan, the former director of Syrian intelligence under Assad. Lebanon’s interim prime minister Najib Mikati previously said Reuters that Lebanon will cooperate with Interpol’s request to arrest al-Hassan.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
