MADRID: Spain’s High Court said on Tuesday it has confiscated millions of euros worth of property owned by an uncle of Syrian president Bashar Assad and his associates as part of a probe into alleged money laundering.
The swoop comes less than a year after Rifaat Assad, an opponent of his nephew’s government, was put under investigation in France for tax fraud and money laundering.
Magistrate Jose de la Mata has ordered the confiscation of holiday homes, car parks, luxury apartments and rural estates in southern Spain worth 691 million euros ($736 million), the High Court said in a statement on its website.
Rifaat Assad’s lawyer in France was not immediately available to comment. He previously declined to comment about the French investigation.
French investigators, who suspect Rifaat Assad of acquiring his wealth in France illegally, discovered that he owned real estate in Spanish tourist resorts of Puerto Banus and Marbella.
Other European countries cooperated on the investigation, and legal proceedings started in Spain last December, following a report by the prosecutor’s office at the high court.
After being sent into exile from Syria in the 1980s, Rifaat Assad is suspected of using money from state coffers to start accumulating a property empire abroad, the court said.
Spanish authorities seized a total 503 properties including a more than 33 million square meter ranch with a market value of 60 million euros. They also froze dozens of bank accounts.
Some of the assets are registered to Rifaat Assad and companies linked to him, and some to his wives, children and daughters-in-law. The owner of one of the blocked accounts is a Spanish citizen who heads the company that manages most of the Assad family’s business abroad. (Reporting by Isla Binnie and Maria Vega Paul)
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Spain swoop targets uncle of Syria’s Assad for alleged money laundering
Spain swoop targets uncle of Syria’s Assad for alleged money laundering
Romanian president invited to first meeting of Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’
- Nicusor Dan said Romania had not yet decided whether to participate in the February 19 gathering
BUCHAREST: Romanian President Nicusor Dan said Sunday he had received an invitation to attend the inaugural meeting of US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” in Washington on February 19.
Dan, writing on his Facebook page, said Romania had not yet made a decision as to whether it would participate.
That would depend, he said, “on discussions with our US partners on the format of the meeting for countries like Romania, which are not currently members of the Board but which wish to be part of it on condition its charter is revised.”
On Saturday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that he, too, had received an invitation to attend the meeting, and that he intended to go.
Trump launched his “Board of Peace” at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January and some 19 countries have signed its founding charter.
Originally designed to oversee the Gaza truce and post-war reconstruction, the board’s mandate has since expanded, prompting concerns among critics that it could evolve into a rival to the United Nations.
Several leaders around the world have received invitations to be part of Trump’s “Board of Peace,” whose permanent members are required to pay $1 billion to join.
Some countries — including Croatia, France, Italy, New Zealand and Norway — have already declined joining it, and others have said they could only consider doing so if its charter were changed.
Under its current charter, the “Board of Peace” has Trump both as its chairman and as the US representative.
It says Trump, as chairman, will have “exclusive authority to create, modify or dissolve entities as necessary” and that he can only be replaced in case of “voluntary resignation or as a result of incapacity.”
Dan, writing on his Facebook page, said Romania had not yet made a decision as to whether it would participate.
That would depend, he said, “on discussions with our US partners on the format of the meeting for countries like Romania, which are not currently members of the Board but which wish to be part of it on condition its charter is revised.”
On Saturday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that he, too, had received an invitation to attend the meeting, and that he intended to go.
Trump launched his “Board of Peace” at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January and some 19 countries have signed its founding charter.
Originally designed to oversee the Gaza truce and post-war reconstruction, the board’s mandate has since expanded, prompting concerns among critics that it could evolve into a rival to the United Nations.
Several leaders around the world have received invitations to be part of Trump’s “Board of Peace,” whose permanent members are required to pay $1 billion to join.
Some countries — including Croatia, France, Italy, New Zealand and Norway — have already declined joining it, and others have said they could only consider doing so if its charter were changed.
Under its current charter, the “Board of Peace” has Trump both as its chairman and as the US representative.
It says Trump, as chairman, will have “exclusive authority to create, modify or dissolve entities as necessary” and that he can only be replaced in case of “voluntary resignation or as a result of incapacity.”
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