'Don't let Assad's British wife return to UK', ministers urged, after she 'becomes unhappy with Moscow life'
24 December 2024, 05:16 | Updated: 24 December 2024, 08:56
Ministers have been urged not to let the British wife of deposed Syrian despot Bashar Al-Assad come back to the UK amid reports she has become unhappy with life in Russia.
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Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick said it would be "an affront" to the dictator's many victims if his wife Asma were allowed to return to London, where she grew up.
After Assad was toppled by jihadi rebels earlier this month he fled to Russia, who backed him in the years-long civil war.
Ms Assad, who was used to a life of luxury in Syria, is said to be dissatisfied with her living standards in Moscow, reportedly wants a divorce and has applied to a Russian court for permission to leave.
Ms Assad is also suffering from cancer and it is thought she may also want to be treated in the UK, rather than Russia. Russian authorities are now said to be considering her application to leave. The Kremlin has denied this.
Read more: What next for Assad's British wife? Could she return to the UK?
Mr Jenrick, a former Conservative leadership candidate, said: "It would be an affront to the millions of Assad's victims if his wife returned to a life of luxury in the UK."
He added: "She has been sanctioned by the UK Government for a reason - the Assad family were responsible for some of the worst atrocities in modern times.'
It's unclear if Ms Assad would be allowed into the UK, despite being a British citizen. Foreign Secretary David Lammy said she was "not welcome here in the UK" because of the sanctions against her.
Assad himself is said to have been restricted to living in Moscow and banned from going to other parts of the country.
Meanwhile his assets - including 270kg of gold, £1.6 billion and 18 flats in Moscow - have also been frozen, according to reports.
The Kremlin has denied this, with spokesperson Dmitry Peskov saying the claims "do not correspond to reality."
Ms Assad was born and raised in west London, the daughter of Fawaz Akhras, 78, a consultant cardiologist, and Sahar, 75, a diplomat at the Syrian embassy. Her brothers, Feras, 46, and Eyad, 44, are also doctors.
Ms Assad - who called herself Emma at school - studied at Twyford Church of England High School in Acton, before taking A-levels at the private Queen’s College in Marylebone.
After completing a degree in computer science at King’s College London she joined Deutsche Bank and later JP Morgan.
She met her future husband during childhood holidays in Syria but they became better acquainted when he moved to London in 1992 to train as an ophthalmologist at the Western Eye Hospital and married four years later when he took over control of Syria after the death of his father, Hafez al-Assad, who died aged 69.
Together they have three children, who are aged between 19 and 23.
Initially after becoming Syria's first lady, she was seen as having a reforming influence on her husband. In 2010 Vogue magazine described her as a “desert rose” and a “long-limbed beauty with a trained analytic mind”.
Months later Assad began the brutal crackdown on opposition groups in the city of Homs, the birthplace of his father-in-law which led to the civil war during which 500,000 people were killed and six million left as refugees.
In 2018, Ms Assad was diagnosed with breast cancer and in May this year announced that she had been diagnosed with leukaemia.
Her family is not covered by UK sanctions, although her parents and both brothers are named under wider US sanctions regulations.
The deposed president, his wife and hundreds of relatives along with political, military and business cronies are included in a list of 417 individuals and companies under UK sanctions.
The High Court was told in 2020 that Assad is believed to have a frozen account with HSBC in London with a balance of more than $51.5 million (£40 million).
The Metropolitan Police war crimes unit opened a preliminary investigation into Asma in 2021.
