What next for Assad's British wife? Could she return to the UK?
9 December 2024, 10:30
Asma Al Assad was once seen as the face of female liberation in the Middle East; with her successful career in banking and her secular British upbringing.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Now she is on the run with her husband. A reviled figure now likened to Lady Macbeth. The days when she was known as 'A Rose in the Desert' must seem a long time ago.
Read More: Boy with the hope of a nation: Shocking moment toddler is freed from brutal Syrian regime prison
The president’s London-born wife, Asma, 49, is 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.
The family still owns the £1 million terraced house off the A40 in Acton, west London, where Asma grew up. Akhras is a consultant at the private Cromwell Hospital in South Kensington and medical director of Cardiac Healthcare Services in Harley Street. He has not responded to requests to comment on the current situation in Syria.
There is no suggestion the family has been involved in any wrongdoing.
Asma called herself Emma while a pupil 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.
UK welcomes reported fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad, says Rayne
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. It is assumed they are with their parents trying to find a safe haven.
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, Asma was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2018 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 the 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. The force has been contacted for an update on progress of the investigation.
Today, the British government said there has been "no contact or no request" for the Asma to return to the UK.
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden said "The family are in Russia as far as we know, that's what Russian state media have said.
"We've certainly had no contact or no request for Mr Assad's wife to come to the UK."
Asked if she could exercise the right to come to the UK, Mr McFadden added: "I couldn't comment on her individual rights.
"I don't know her exact circumstances, so I don't know what would happen in those circumstances, but it's not something that's been raised with us."
"From the point of view of the UK Government, our main concern at the moment is what the future is, whether the rights of citizens and minorities are protected and whether stability can come to a country that has had so much violence and war over the past 15 years,."
