Rifaat al-Assad, an uncle of the ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad charged in Switzerland with war crimes over the bloody suppression of a revolt in 1982, has flown from Beirut to Dubai in recent days, two Lebanese security officials said on Friday.
The officials said that "many members" of the Assad family had travelled to Dubai from Beirut and others had stayed in Lebanon since Assad was toppled on Dec. 8. Lebanese authorities had not received Interpol requests to arrest them, including Rifaat, the officials said.
The UAE foreign ministry did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. The Lebanese officials said they did not know if Rifaat or the other Assad family members intended to stay in Dubai or travel elsewhere.
Rifaat, in his late 80s, was brother to Assad's father, the late president Hafez al-Assad, and led elite forces that crushed a 1982 Muslim Brotherhood uprising in the city of Hama, killing more than 10,000 people. In 2022, the independent Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) monitoring group alleged that between 30,000 to 40,000 civilians had been killed in Hama.
Switzerland's Attorney General's Office has referred Rifaat al-Assad for trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity over killings and torture in Hama, under the principle that all countries have jurisdiction over such crimes. He has denied responsibility.