As prisoners have been let out from their subterranean jail cells round Damascus, shocked crowds roamed the ousted former president Bashar al-Assad’s mansions to seize what they may carry – and marvel on the trappings of his wealth.
Pictures from the presidential palace confirmed a person carrying a beige plush chair over his shoulder as individuals roamed the tiled flooring beneath intricate carved picket ceilings. In one other picture, a smashed chandelier lay in a courtyard beneath an ornate sloping staircase, a crumpled Syrian flag bunched among the many damaged glass. More photographs confirmed picket furnishings and fittings that had been carried into the backyard outdoors as individuals tried to haul them away.
Video confirmed one man working via one among Assad’s homes within the neighbourhood of al-Maliki, over its plush pink carpets, shiny marble flooring and previous a rack of garments together with a Dior garment bag.
“I’m within the president’s home!” he shouted breathlessly, working via rooms unable to imagine what was taking place, pausing at one level to throw a portrait of Hafez al-Assad, who dominated Syria for many years earlier than handing energy to his son, to the ground with a crash.
The halls and opulent bedrooms of Assad’s mansions appeared eerily empty, save for looters and spectators, after the previous chief also known as “the butcher of Damascus” fled to Moscow along with his household. The whereabouts of many different notable figures from the inside circle of the Assad regime remained unknown, amid rumours that they had additionally fled the nation as rebel forces closed in, their mansions additionally left empty.
The state division estimated the online wealth of the Assad household at as much as £1.6bn in a 2022 report back to Congress, including this remained an estimate resulting from their in depth assortment of household property “which might be believed to be unfold out and hid in quite a few accounts, actual property portfolios, companies, and offshore tax havens”.
The Assads, they added, had deep “patronage relationships with Syria’s largest financial gamers, utilizing their corporations to launder cash from illicit actions and funnel funds to the regime. These networks penetrate all sectors of the Syrian economic system.”
While the Assad household and their mates loved the trimmings of their wealth, Syrians starved. A 2022 World Bank report stated 14.5 million individuals, nearly 70% of the inhabitants, lived in poverty whereas excessive poverty affected one in each 4 individuals.
A Syrian influencer and comic referred to as Fady Maaz shared movies of his finds inside one of many Assad’s homes, rifling via a fridge stuffed with baggage of meat, with what gave the impression to be a paper bag from the posh model Hermès left in entrance of the fridge. In one other room, teams of individuals ransacked racks stuffed with artworks and work, wading via piles of bins and paper strewn on the ground.
after publication promotion
Maaz filmed himself dragging a Louis Vuitton suitcase that gave the impression to be bursting on the seams, and prices an estimated £36,500. In one other video, he went into the health club and filmed himself on the elliptical, turning to the floor-length mirror to disclose him standing atop the tools in a hoodie and denims.
Others entered a spacious storage stuffed with Assad’s automobile assortment, filming dozens of luxurious vehicles together with Aston Martins and a Lamborghini. A brand new shiny black Lexus four-wheel-drive was parked close to a uncommon pink Ferrari F50, which may value £1.5m.
