Al-Assad’s Cousin Claims he has Been Persecuted and Targeted

A cousin of President Bashar al-Assad has claimed that Syrian security forces have been arresting his employees, seizing his assets and trying to destroy his businesses, while at the same time putting the lives of needy people at risk.  

In the latest episode of a family clash that has gripped Syria, on July 9, Syrian businessman Rami Makhlouf, the cousin of President Bashar al-Assad, said security forces were trying to "force him to relinquish his companies."

Makhlouf described the security agency's actions on Facebook, which he said included threats of arrest and defamation, as "illegal and abnormal," stressing that they aimed to pressure him into giving up his property and the funds he had put toward the country’s poor and needy.

He went on to explain that after the regime's security apparatus seized his money, companies, and accounts, it “arbitrarily” closed several other companies, including the Noor Microfinance Company, which had offered assistance to people with low incomes. The regime's actions therefore led to the dismissal of hundreds of employees, thus preventing his remaining companies from operating. 

His Facebook post read: 

“Over the last six months, the security agency has continued to arrest our employees, one after the other. They have arrested most of the men on the front line, and now only women remain. Not satisfied with that, they forced us to relinquish [our assets] to them. After all the measures they have taken against us, including the seizure of our companies, all of our accounts, and all our possessions, this was not enough for them, so they closed several companies through arbitrary decisions, and consequently laid off hundreds of employees and prevented the remaining companies from conducting their business in the correct, legal and normal way. The companies that they decided to liquidate include Noor Microfinancing Company, which assisted those with low incomes, [giving them] soft loans to facilitate their lives. We have also been prevented from helping those in need in any way, and have been stopped from providing aid in any form, whether in kind or financial, under penalty of arrest. After all of these illegal and abnormal measures, the security services have not stopped at that. They started to put pressure on the women in our establishments by arresting them one by one. The [security] men threaten them with fabricated accusations of spying against them and by [making them give] false confessions aimed at insulting our reputation. They terrified the women using various means to force them to submit to their demands... Is this not the pinnacle of depravity? Where are the laws? Where are the regulations? Where is the constitution that protects these innocent people? Are they terrorists that should be treated this way and detained unjustly for several weeks, when all of them have good reputations, high morals, and are distinguished patriots? All of this for what? In order to pressure us to relinquish our property and funds that have been entrusted to the poor and needy.

We say to them: Do you not fear the injustice for the servants?

Do you not fear the Lord of the servants? Did you not hear what God Almighty said: "And they Lord is not the least bit unjust to the servants."

How dare you oppress the righteous servants of God?

Your injustice has become great, but God is greater.

There's no strength except in God Almighty.

Note: Please do not comment on this post because the security services follow people who comment and subject them to pressure and arrest.

Targeted Persecution  

Bashar al-Assad's regime has targeted Rami Makhlouf as part of its apparent crackdown on corruption in Syria. Makhlouf appeared in a video at the beginning of May, in which he talked about the measures the authorities had taken against him over the previous months, and about his commitment to charitable work. The statement coincided with taxes being imposed on his telecommunications company, Syriatel, one of the country’s two telecoms networks. 

Two days later, Makhlouf accused the security services in Syria of arresting his companies' employees and putting pressure on him "in an unacceptable and inhumane manner" to force him to stop his business activities. Makhlouf asked: "Did anyone expect that the security services would come to the companies owned by Rami Makhlouf, the biggest supporter and servant of these agencies and their biggest sponsor of them during the war?"

On May 19, Makhlouf announced that the Syrian government's telecommunications regulatory authority had seized his, his wife's, and children's funds, and had ordered that he be prevented from pursuing contracts with any government agency for a period of five years.

At the time, the businessman believed that the measures, including a document signed by the Syrian prime minister, taken against him were illegal, were an attempt to exclude him from the management of Syriatel telecommunications, which the regime linked to his failure to pay fees imposed on him by the Telecommunications and Post Regulatory Authority.

On May 20, the Syrian regime's State Council issued an order that prohibited Rami Makhlouf from leaving the country in accordance with Syria’s constitution and pending the outcome of the case, or until he made the payment he owed to al-Assad’s administration. 

Makhlouf’s struggle with the Syrian regime began in summer 2019 when he took control of the Al-Bustan Association and formed the Humanitarian Front, an organization fo that the regime paid for throughout the Syrian war.  

The Los Angeles Times has reported that since 2019,  the Syrian regime has taken steps to block Makhlouf's business dealings and other activities. From the beginning, his militias were demobilized, upon Russia's insistence. But then there were reports that organizations linked to al-Assad's wife, Asma Al-Akhras, would take over his charitable organizations, and that parts of Syriatel would be given to the Martyrs' Fund, a financial entity controlled by Syria’s regime forces.

Former Syrian Prime Minister Dr. Riyad Hijab also spoke about the roots of the dispute between the two ruling families in the country during his time in office, describing Bashar al-Asad as a source of corruption in Syria, while at the same time believing Makhlouf was putting up a front to protect his personal interests.

Related Coverage: 

Corruption Scandal Exposes Rift Among Syria's Rulers