Rifaat Assad, uncle of the Syrian president, has been hospitalized in Paris while standing trial for money laundering, his son tells AFP Tuesday.
“He has been in intensive care since last night [Monday]” at the American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine west of Paris, Siwar Assad says.
Rifaat Assad suffered from a form of internal bleeding “and is not very well.” He will need to stay in intensive care for two or three days.
The younger brother of the late Syrian president Hafez Assad — father of the current president Bashar Assad — is standing trial in Paris for crimes allegedly committed between 1984 and 2016, including aggravated tax fraud and misappropriation of Syrian funds.
The charges relate to his vast property empire in France.
France’s national finance prosecutor called Monday for a four-year prison sentence and a 10-million-euro fine.
The prosecutor also called for the confiscation of all his real estate, valued at 90 million euros ($99.5 million).
— AFP
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