Khaberni- Two sources reported today, Wednesday, the death of Rifaat al-Assad, the uncle of the deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Rifaat was accused of orchestrating mass killings during a revolt in Syria in 1982.
Who is Rifaat al-Assad?
Rifaat Ali Sulaiman al-Assad (born August 22, 1937), is the younger brother of the former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, and Jamil al-Assad, and the uncle of the former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He served as the Vice President of the Syrian Republic for National Security, a member of the national leadership of the Ba'ath Party, and the commander of the Defense Companies. He is attributed with a number of brutal massacres in Syria.
After a failed coup attempt against Hafez al-Assad in 1984, Rifaat al-Assad went into exile in France where he lived for 36 years. He returned to Syria in October 2021 after being convicted in France of embezzling millions of euros from the Syrian state. In September 2022, the Court of Cassation (the highest judicial authority in France) upheld the verdict.
In August 2023, Switzerland issued an international arrest warrant for Rifaat al-Assad after the Federal Criminal Court requested his extradition to prosecute him for his role in overseeing the ground operations of the Hama massacre. The arrest warrant was issued as part of proceedings related to a war crimes complaint filed in 2013 by the human rights organization "Trial International" to the Swiss Attorney General. In March 2024, the Swiss Attorney General's Office charged Rifaat al-Assad with several crimes related to the Hama massacre in February 1982.
Rifaat al-Assad was born to an Alawite family in the village of Qardaha near Latakia, western Syria, on August 22, 1937. He studied political science and economics at Damascus University, and later received an honorary doctorate in politics from the Academy of Sciences in the Soviet Union.
Beginning of his political activity
Rifaat joined the Syrian Arab Army in 1958 with the rank of first lieutenant, and was soon promoted after receiving training in a number of Soviet military academies (especially the artillery school in Yekaterinburg). In 1965, he became the commander of a special security force loyal to the military wing of the Ba'ath Party, and soon helped Hafez al-Assad in overthrowing Salah Jadid and seizing power in 1970. In 1971, he was allowed to form his own paramilitary group known as the Defense Companies, which later transformed into a regular military force, trained and equipped by the Soviet Union. He held the rank of qualified paratrooper knight.
Under the rule of Hafez
After the outbreak of the March 8th Revolution in 1963 and the Ba'ath Party taking power in Syria, Rifaat al-Assad was among the Ba'athist officers who graduated from the military academy. He participated in the February 23, 1966 coup, and played a prominent role in the corrective movement led by his brother Hafez al-Assad between February 25 and 28, 1969. During this period, he joined an armored guards and infantry commanders course in the Qaboun area. In 1967, he was appointed commander of Division 569, and later the Defense Companies were attached to it, which were among the strongest divisions in the Syrian army.
In 1975, he joined a senior military staff course with a group of Russian military experts on military doctrine, and in the same year he held the position of president of the Constitutional Court, in addition to serving as the head of the Higher Education Bureau between 1975 and 1980. During that period, he earned a doctorate in economics for a study covering economic transformations in the agricultural and industrial sectors, as well as a doctorate in history from Damascus University. He also received many medals and honorary certificates from political figures, notably a decoration from French President François Mitterrand.
In 1976, he visited Lebanon as a guest of Tony Frangieh, with whom he had personal and strong relations. On June 28, 1979, fifteen people were executed in Damascus after being convicted of attempting to assassinate Rifaat al-Assad.
Despite this, Rifaat al-Assad remains a main suspect in many of the crimes and massacres that occurred in Syria during Ba'ath Party rule, such as the Hama massacre and the Tadmur Prison massacre. He is also constantly pursued for charges of financial corruption and embezzlement, the most recent being the complaint filed by the organization "Sherpa" and the French organization for international transparency, where he was accused of acquiring properties in France through illegal means. The French judiciary began looking into this complaint.
1970-1988
He played a major role in military and political life in Syria since his brother took executive power in 1970. He continued to lead Division 569 and oversee the Defense Companies until 1984, and many saw him as the likely successor to his elder brother Hafez al-Assad in leading the country.
In February 1982, he was the supervisor and general commander of the Syrian army, leading forces in quelling the Muslim Brotherhood opposition in downtown Hama, by ordering his forces to bombard the city, resulting in the deaths of thousands of its residents. This became known as the Hama massacre. The U.S. journalist Thomas Friedman claims in his book "From Beirut to Jerusalem" published in 1989 that Rifaat later boasted about the total number of victims, saying there were at least 38,000.
Rifaat al-Assad explained what he considered a misunderstanding by some of what happened, stating that the Defense Companies were not under his command as their presence and tasks were limited to protecting Syrian warplanes and airports on its soil. The unit he headed was Unit 569, responsible for protecting the capital from Israeli advances and stationed across several fronts including Deir al-‘Asha’ir, Lebanon, and Maysaloun, praising the heroism of its members who stood steadfast against numerous enemy infiltration attempts.
He said that no soldier from Unit 569 entered Hama city and that no soldier fought in the city. He was surprised by the deployment of about 200 soldiers from the unit to Hama city six months before the events of Hama started to protect some leaders and officials in the party and the state residing there, and these soldiers routed from Hama city along with other defeated forces following the armed uprising by the Muslim Brotherhood, which prompted the Syrian leadership to send the army to liberate the city from its occupiers. He emphasizes that all the controversy surrounding the events of Hama and accusations against him are incorrect because if a chief of staff exists, no military unit moves without a decision from him... and that the decision to intervene in Hama was primarily a political decision borne by all the politicians responsible for that period.
Rifaat al-Assad's statements that the Defense Companies were not responsible for what happened in Hama city sparked a wave of ridicule in the media. Facebook was then flooded with a stream of sarcastic comments from Syrians who saw this amount of black comedy as inappropriate for the martyrs of the massacre, estimated to be between 30,000 and 40,000... and that one could deny what appears to be a stigma on his forehead and on the system he belongs to... but that certainly does not rise to the level of denying a connection known to many of the victims' children and families, as they know and remember the pains of those terrible years that have not been erased from their memory.
On the other hand, the former Vice President of the Syrian Arab Republic, Abdul Halim Khaddam, commented on Rifaat al-Assad's claims of not being responsible or that the Defense Companies were not responsible for the Hama massacre as not surprising, as most of what Rifaat al-Assad said was an avoidance of responsibility (he was famously known for), and Khaddam clarified that no such claim by Rifaat al-Assad is true that the leadership formed two committees, one military and the other political including Hafez al-Assad, Abdul Halim Khaddam, the Prime Minister, and the Minister of Interior, but only the narrow military group close to Hafez al-Assad among its members was Rifaat al-Assad, which managed the battle in all its security and political dimensions. He also confirmed that no political committee was formed to manage the battle, and ministers, members of the national leadership, and members of the National Front, most often received information from the street coming from Hama, in addition to leaks coming from the military. The national leadership did not know about the Hama massacre until the government asked for an additional budget to rebuild the city. As far as the Hama massacre is concerned, the military division that participated in the fighting along with the Defense Companies received instructions from army command, with direct links to Hafez al-Assad and the military leadership, and information about the developments came to army command.
In 1984, there were talks that he attempted a coup against his brother Hafez al-Assad to monopolize power, but President Hafez al-Assad prevented that, and the dispute was resolved with Rifaat al-Assad leaving Syria with a large group of his associates for a period of 6 months until the crisis that arose from these circumstances was overcome, the living costs of Rifaat and his companions in Europe were paid from Rifaat's accounts distributed across several banks in Europe. After that, he returned to Damascus and participated in the discussions and activities of the national conference in 1985, although he was appointed as the Deputy President of the Syrian Arab Republic for National Security Affairs, the political disputes between the brothers remained explosive on many fronts, and he left Syria again in 1985 to reside in Paris, after declaring more than
