Španjolska ide dalje sa suđenjem stricu sirijskog predsjednika Bashara al-Assada optuženom za pranje novca, objavio je u petak visoki sud nakon što je sudac istrage okončao svoj dio postupka.
Tužitelji imaju deset dana da odgovore sudu koji je preporučio da se postupak nastavi. To se smatra formalnošću nakon koje će se odrediti datum početka suđenja. Prije dvije godine sud je oduzeo imovinu vrijednu više od 600 milijuna eura za koju se vjeruje da je povezana s Raifaatom al-Assadom.
Spain has ordered properties to be seized and bank accounts frozen in a money laundering investigation linked to the family of Rifaat al-Assad. Judiciary officials said that the uncle of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad was handed $300 million of public money when he was sent into exile in 1984. Now aged 79, he was placed under formal investigation in France last year. Some of his fortune ended up in property in Marbella and Puerto Banus on the south coast, officials said. While his brother Hafez al-Assad was in power, Rifaat was renowned for the brutality with which he crushed an uprising in the Syrian city of Hama in 1982. Last year he was said to be living in Paris. He is under investigation in France for concealing stolen assets, money laundering and fiscal fraud. Several luxury properties have already been seized by French authorities in Paris and an appeal by the exiled former vice-president was turned down. Rifaat al-Assad has in the past said he was given the money by the Saudi royal family.
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On je bivši vojni zapovjednik i vjeruje se da je odgovoran za gušenje islamističkog ustanka protiv tadašnjeg predsjednika Hafeza al-Assada, Basharova oca kada su pobijene tisuće ljudi. Rifaat se 1984. okrenuo protiv režima nakon borbe za nasljednika njegova starijeg brata Hafeza. Danas živi u egzilu u Francuskoj i Velikoj Britaniji.
I u Francuskoj je suočen sa suđenjem za navodno nezakonito stjecanje nekretnina vrijednih milijune eura.
