French court finds Syria president's exiled uncle guilty of property fraud

The exiled uncle of Syria President Bashar al-Assad -- Rifaat al-Assad -- has been found guilty of acquiring millions of euros worth of French property using funds diverted from his state. He was on Wednesday sentenced to four years in prison.

The French court ordered the seizure of all of Rifaat al-Assad's property in France -- which judicial sources estimate is worth $113 million -- as well as a property worth $32 million in London.

Rifaat al-Assad has lived in exile, mostly in France, since the mid-1980s, after being accused of trying to seize power from his brother, then-President Hafez al-Assad, Bashar's father. He previously commanded troops accused of killing thousands of people to crush an Islamist uprising in 1982.

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French judicial authorities suspected him of having unduly acquired real estate in several countries between 1984 and 2016 with funds from Syria. He repeatedly denied the allegations and said he acquired his wealth as a gift from the Saudi king.

The French court also ordered him to pay 30,000 euros to the anti-corruption organisations Sherpa and Transparency International France, which first filed a legal complaint against him in 2013.

Among the properties that will be seized is a mansion on the prestigious Avenue Foch in Paris.

He will not be sent to prison pending the appeal.

In 2017, Spanish authorities seized more than 500 Spanish properties from him, worth about 700 million euros, as part of a Franco-Spanish money-laundering operation.

(with inputs)