Rifaat Assad, uncle of the deposed Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, died on Wednesday at the age of 87, according to reports from news agencies. In his earlier years, Rifaat stood as a key pillar in the Syrian regime and earned the grim moniker "the Butcher of Hama" due to the slaughter he unleashed on rebels in the city during the 1980s, when the Muslim Brotherhood began an insurgency.
Over decades, Rifaat occupied high-ranking roles under his brother's reign, the Syrian dictator Hafez Assad. He rose to prominence in the security and military elite and was viewed as a likely successor. Ultimately, Hafez opted to hand power to his son. Initially, he groomed the eldest son Basil Assad, but he perished in a car crash. Afterward, Hafez shifted focus to priming Bashar Assad for leadership. Amid this transition, Rifaat fell out with him and had no choice but to flee into exile overseas.
As noted, Rifaat Assad played a central role in quelling the uprising spearheaded by the local Muslim Brotherhood in the city of Hama in 1982. The city boasted a substantial Sunni Muslim community and served as a bastion for the group. The Muslim Brotherhood launched their revolt in retaliation for the executions of its imprisoned members, which stemmed from a botched assassination bid on Hafez Assad. Within that operation, Rifaat Assad commanded the security units that butchered tens of thousands of Syrians over several weeks.
Throughout his exile in Europe, reports emerged that Rifaat Assad amassed fortunes through investments and property acquisitions. This prompted a probe in France into the origins of his wealth. In 2022, he was found guilty of acquiring real estate and financial holdings valued at millions of euros (approximately millions of dollars) using illicitly funneled money.
In 2021, Syrian media outlets reported that the then dictator Bashar al-Assad permitted his uncle to return to the capital Damascus. Three years later, the court in Switzerland filed an indictment against him for war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the Hama massacre.
