Life-threatening illness: Report: Bashar al-Assad’s wife files for divorce

Life-threateningly ill
Report: Bashar al-Assad’s wife files for divorce

December 23, 2024, 8:34 a.m

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Shortly before the Islamists take Damascus at the beginning of December, Syria’s ruler al-Assad ran away and fled to Moscow. His wife Asma and children are already there. Now, according to reports, she wants to separate from him after 24 years of marriage and move to England.

Around two weeks after the fall of Bashar al-Assad and his escape to Moscow, his marriage now appears to be over. The British wife of the deposed Syrian leader, Asma al-Assad, has apparently filed for divorce and wants to move to London. The reported “The Jerusalem Post” with reference to several Turkish and Arabic media. Asma had previously expressed that she was dissatisfied with her life in Moscow.

According to reports, Asma has turned to a Russian court and applied for a special permit to leave Moscow. She and her children are said to want to return to the UK for urgent medical treatment. Your application is currently being examined by the Russian authorities, it said.

Bashar al-Assad’s wife has dual British and Syrian citizenship and was born and raised in London by Syrian parents, the BBC reports. Asma moved to Syria in 2000 and married Assad the same year at the age of 25.

According to Assad’s office, Asma has leukemia. The diagnosis was made after the appearance of symptoms and several tests and examinations, the presidential office announced at the end of May. Acute myeloid leukemia, which Asma al-Assad is said to have suffered from, is an aggressive cancer of the bone marrow and blood. As part of her treatment, the president’s wife will temporarily not attend public appointments, it was said. She had previously been treated for breast cancer. In August 2019, she announced that she had completely overcome cancer.

Assad hastily flees to Moscow

The Islamist HTS militia and allied groups launched a major offensive in northern Syria on November 27th. In the following days, the Islamists took the strategically important cities of Hama and Homs. A week later they are in Damascus.

Just a few hours before the fall of the capital, Syria’s ruler al-Assad had fled in a cloak-and-dagger operation. He is said to have first flown to the Russian military base at Hmeimim in western Syria and from there to Moscow, where his ally, President Vladimir Putin, granted him asylum. His wife Asma and three adult children were already waiting for him in the Russian capital, three former close advisers and a senior regional official said.

Although his asylum application was accepted, al-Assad is said to remain subject to strict restrictions. He is not allowed to leave Moscow or to engage in political activity, writes “The Jerusalem Post.” Accordingly, the Russian authorities have frozen his assets and money. His assets are said to include 270 kilograms of gold, two billion dollars and 18 apartments in Moscow.

Assad’s brother, Maher al-Assad, was not granted asylum in Russia. According to Saudi and Turkish reports, his application is still being examined. According to the newspaper, Maher and his family are said to be under house arrest in Russia.