Bashar Al-Assad's uncle stands trial in France accused of enriching himself with Syrian state funds

A trial against Rifaat Al-Assad begins in Paris on Monday accused of using Syrian state funds to build a French real estate.

The former vice-president and uncle of Bashar Al-Assad has lived in Europe since his exile from Syria following a failed coup attempt in the 1980s against then-president Hafez Al-Assad.

A complaint was filed by watchdog organisations in Paris in 2014 alleging that the value of Rifaat’s French real estate holdings - some 90 million euros ($99.5 million) - is far greater than his own income.

Rifaat Al-Assad has also been probed before this for his finances with an investigating judge ordering him earlier this year to stand trial for money laundering.

He denies the charges "completely", Cedric Anthony-Btesh, a representative of the family, told AP, and will not attend the trial due to medical reasons.

A Spanish court has recommended that former Syrian Vice President Rifaat al-Assad, the exiled uncle of Bashar al-Assad, and 13 others be put on trial on charges of criminal organisation and money laundering.

Judge Jose de la Mata alleges that Rifaat Assad and the others, including eight sons, have laundered money taken out of Syria in several European countries since the 1980s.

The court accuses them of laundering around 600 million euros ($664 million) in Spain through real estate purchases.

The judge in 2017 ordered the seizure of more than 500 properties belonging to Assad and his relatives.

Rifaat is thought to be responsible for the 1982 Hama massacre that saw the deaths of as many as 40,000 people and the 1980 Tadmor prison massacre of between 500 to 1,000 inmates.

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