Bahsar al-Assad’s wife Asma has filed for divorce from the former Syrian leader in what is believed to be a bid to flee their exile in Russia and head to London where she was born
Syrian despot Bahsar al-Assad’s wife Asma has filed for divorce in a bid to flee exile in Moscow after her husband’s reign was toppled, according to reports.
The 49 year-old former high society beauty – who went from “Desert Rose” to “the First Lady of Hell,”- is apparently unhappy with a life under the control of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
She and the couple’s three children were already in Russia when on December 8 her husband finally fled the country he had ruled over with iron brutally for 24 years. There are claims she has been undergoing treatment for acute myeloid leukaemia, an aggressive form of blood and bone marrow cancer and may need treatment.
Asma had battled and beaten breast cancer in 2018, announcing she was well again in 2019, as her country was recovering from years of war and terror from rebels and jihadists. But hopes of a new life in her home town London may be dashed if she faces investigation for alleged knowledge or participation of war crimes as she is already under sanctions.
More than half a million Syrians have died in the years of violence that followed a 2011 rebellion against the Assad regime – many of them disappeared in mass graves around Damascus. It has been reported that Asma, who played a key role in Syria’s financial structure, is “no longer welcome” in the UK as she is the subject of sanctions placed on her by British authorities.
The new rulers of Syria, led by Mohammad al-Jolani’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebel group have declared all regime figures behind killings and torture will face justice. And for now the Assads are holed up in a regime -controlled apartment complex in Moscow – with the Kremlin denying claims she has filed for a divorce.
London-born Asma married her tyrant husband secretly in 2001 shortly after he was made President, and she was first considered a Syrian Princess Diana, caring for her people. Reports suggest Asma, once from Acton, West London of Syrian parents, has already applied in Moscow’s courts for a divorce and wants to move back to London.
Despite the £1.6 billion exile-cash and 260 kg of gold worth £15bn the Assad’s spirited out of Syria the couple are believed to have had their lives restricted. They are apparently barred from leaving the city and it is believed they are constantly watched by Putin’s heavies and are not allowed to speak publicly.
As rebel fighters of Hayat Tahris al-Sham closed in on Damascus, Assad and his inner-circle spirited away in tunnels and fast cars for a desperate flight to Moscow. French-speaking King’s College graduate Asma studied computer science and had a successful career in investment banking when she married Bashar, who she met in London.
The daughter of a wealthy female Syrian diplomat and a private cardiologist, she attended the posh girls’ school Queen’s College in London’s well-to-do Marylebone. Both her mother Sahar and father Fawaz are believed to have travelled from London, where they have lived for years, to Moscow shortly after she fled there.
It is not known if they have returned to the UK. When the couple met Assad had been in the UK capital as a doctor and was finishing training as an ophthalmologist when he returned to Syria to succeed his tyrant father Hafez. It is believed she and Assad had previously known each other from her parents’ frequent holidays in Syria where they rubbed shoulders with the elite.
After marriage she travelled throughout her parents’ country, meeting locals but growing hopes she might become a saintly protector of Syrians with sympathies for the needy were dashed. The Syrian government even paid thousands to US PR experts to polish her global reputation and she was even described as a “rose of the desert,” by Vogue magazine.
But even though she tried to reject an image of Arab bling in 2012 a Wikileaks expose revealed she spent £300,000 on palace furnishing and £5,000 on diamond encrusted shoes. She is said to have lavished a fortune on paintings and her favourite high society Christian Louboutin shoes, often shipped in from Dubai to dodge anti-Syrian regime sanctions.
Over the years she, her husband and his fawning hangers-on have bought a staggering 20 luxury apartments in Moscow’s elite areas. In Moscow, the Assad clan is linked to luxury properties in both the 990ft City of Capitals complex and the nearby 1,226ft Federation Tower.
His extended family own dozens of properties here and elsewhere in Moscow, but it is believed the family now resides in official Russian government accommodation. One week before al-Assad’s loss of power, the couple’s eldest son Hafez Bashar al-Assad, 23, had been in Russia studying at Moscow State University. His mother celebrated with him in Russia when he was awarded his degree at the same university last year.
