The Paris Court of Appeal on Thursday confirmed that the uncle of Bashar Assad, Rifaat Assad, was sentenced to four years in prison.
The youngest brother of late Syrian President Hafez Assad had to leave the country after a coup attempt in March 1984. In 1986, he was awarded the Grand Cross of the National Order of the Legion of Honour by French President François Mitterrand.
The exiled politician initially faced accusations of tax fraud and embezzlement in France back in 2014. At the same time, Spain seized his assets and bank accounts in a separate money-laundering investigation in 2017.
In 2020, he appealed a court ruling that sentenced him to four years imprisonment, but today the Court of Appeal upheld the initial ruling.