The Syrian Future Movement expresses its deep appreciation for the significant step announced by the French government on January 12, 2026, which includes the serious intention to transfer an initial payment of €32 million from assets confiscated from Rifaat al-Assad to the Syrian transitional government, with the possibility of increasing this amount to over €80 million, including a collection of luxury properties in Paris and its suburbs.
We also view this step as a moral and historic victory for the Syrian people’s efforts to reclaim their plundered rights. It affirms the international community’s commitment to supporting the transition process in Syria and comes as a positive response to official Syrian efforts to combat corruption and promote transparency.
The Syrian Future Movement notes that Rifaat al-Assad, the former Vice President of Syria and head of the National Defense Forces, left the country in 1984 following a failed coup attempt against his brother, Hafez al-Assad. He exploited his former influence to amass a vast fortune from embezzled Syrian public funds through complex international financial networks and offshore companies in jurisdictions such as the British Virgin Islands and Switzerland. In 2013, the French anti-corruption rights organization Sherpa filed a formal complaint, leading to a wide-ranging judicial investigation into the sources of his wealth. This culminated in a landmark ruling by a Paris court on June 17, 2020, in which Rifaat was convicted of money laundering, embezzlement of public funds, and tax fraud. Assets worth approximately €90 million were confiscated, including luxury mansions and apartments. The French Court of Appeal upheld this ruling on September 9, 2021, and the French Court of Cassation affirmed it on September 7, 2022, making these assets the property of the French state under a French law passed in July 2021 that regulates the return of stolen assets to affected populations through specific legal mechanisms.
Following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime on December 15, 2024, and the formation of the transitional government on January 5, 2025, Amer al-Ali, head of the Central Authority for Control and Inspection, emphasized in October 2025, during a meeting of the MENA-AREN network in Saudi Arabia, the importance of recovering these assets as a fundamental pillar for building a stable national economy, thus paving the way for the current announcement, which reflects the fruit of international cooperation.
The Syrian Future Movement calls for accelerating and expanding the process of recovering the assets looted by the Assad family and all those involved in the former corrupt regime. It considers the announced €32 million a promising first step, but insufficient given the scale of the looted wealth, estimated at billions of dollars, scattered across multiple European and Asian countries, including assets in Spain, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland.
The Syrian Future Movement urges the Syrian transitional government to strengthen effective international cooperation with relevant judicial bodies to pursue ongoing investigations and file new lawsuits where necessary, such as the anticipated lawsuit in Denmark against the company that supplied Russian aircraft with fuel between 2015 and 2017. This should be done while leveraging international agreements to bolster these efforts, thereby contributing to closing the chapter on historical corruption and preventing its recurrence.
The Syrian Future Movement emphasizes the necessity of allocating these recovered funds exclusively and systematically to support transitional justice processes. This includes funding the search for missing and detained persons, providing fair compensation to victims and their families, rebuilding infrastructure damaged by conflict, and supporting the national economy through sustainable development projects. Full transparency and independent oversight by impartial international organizations such as the United Nations and the World Bank must be ensured.
In this context, the Syrian Future Movement bases its position on the 2003 United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), particularly Article 51, which governs the recovery of stolen assets through international cooperation, and Article 57, which emphasizes the importance of returning these assets to their rightful owners in an effective and transparent manner, ensuring that this process is part of building a state governed by the rule of law that protects the rights of all.
The Syrian Future Movement calls on the transitional government to form an independent and representative national committee to manage the recovered assets. This committee should include representatives from civil society, human rights organizations, economic experts, and the judiciary to ensure the fair and effective distribution of these resources, preventing any attempts to recycle the mechanisms of past corruption. This is in line with the commitment to UN Security Council Resolution 2254 of 2015, which calls for a comprehensive political process in Syria encompassing justice, reconstruction, and national reconciliation, while protecting minorities and human rights.
The Syrian Future Movement expresses its optimism that this French initiative will serve as a model for broader international cooperation, contributing to ending the era of impunity and opening new doors for reconstruction and development in Syria, while recalling the sacrifices of the Syrian people over decades of oppression and plunder.
The Syrian Future Movement affirms that the new Syria must be a state where the rule of law and social justice prevail, where the people regain their legitimate rights and build a future worthy of their rich history and the sacrifices of their sons and daughters.
