MADRID: Spanish police investigating a money laundering case on Tuesday raided properties and blocked dozens of bank accounts, including some belonging or linked to relatives of former Syrian Vice President Rifaat Assad — the exiled uncle of Syria’s current leader.
Civil Guard police said the searches were carried out in the southern coastal towns of Marbella and Puerto Banus with the aid of French police. They followed a request by National Court judge Jose de la Mata who is probing money-laundering crimes carried out by a gang in the two towns, a court statement said.
Two of Rifaat Assad’s wives and six of his sons are among the 15 people investigated.
The judge ordered the seizure of more than 500 properties owned by Rifaat Assad and his relatives, a court statement said. Most of them are located in Puerto Banus, a luxury marina in Costa del Sol. The property stock, valued at €691 million ($735 million), includes a 33 sq. km estate valued at €60 million ($63.9 million).
The accounts of 76 “legal entities” — which include companies, trusts and funds — that were owned, administered or linked to Rifaat Assad and his relatives were also blocked, a court statement said.
The court said that no arrests were made.
Rifaat Assad is the exiled uncle of Syrian President Bashar Assad. He was vice president of Syria when the country was ruled by the current leader’s father.
He fled into exile after a failed 1984 coup attempt against his brother, then-President Hafez Assad, and lives mostly in France. He tried to take power again in Syria in 2000, when his brother died, but the ruling party closed ranks around Bashar.
Rifaat was critical of Bashar after the country’s crisis began in March 2011, vowing to work to topple the Syrian president and give the power to the people.
Meanwhile, Britain said on Tuesday it has allocated £1 billion ($1.24 billion), including £160 million of new money, to help Syrian refugees displaced by six years of civil war and countries that host them.
International donors are expected to pledge billions of dollars more in aid for Syria at a two-day conference in Brussels that the EU says must also help prepare for an eventual end to the war.
