Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s wife.

When, aged 25, Asma Akhras swapped pursuing an MBA at Harvard for marrying a meek-looking ex-ophthalmology student named Bashar al-Assad, she had no illusions as to her beau’s career.

His Stalin-worshipping father Hafez had ruled Syria as mercilessly as his idol for almost three decades. Bashar’s older brother was dead, and Bashar was newly installed as his father’s successor. He had swapped Harley Street for torture chambers; fixing cataracts for gassing his own people. If Akhras was wilfully blind to what she was getting herself in for, not even her husband’s skills could have saved her.

Yet a quarter century, 580,000 dead, and one coup later, and the erstwhile desert rose seems to have realised that life with Bashar is not all it was cracked up to be. Middle Eastern media has reported that Syria’s former first lady has filed for divorce in Russia, where the Kremlin granted the pair asylum after the collapse of her husband’s regime last month.

Mrs Assad was born in London to Syrian parents. She grew up in Acton and graduated from King’s College London. She still retains her British citizenship. Having been diagnosed with leukemia earlier this year, she is said to want to return to London for cancer treatment. The Kremlin has denied the reports, as well as suggestions that the pair are being confined to Moscow.

But if there is any truth in the idea that she is pining for North London, the Government must dismiss it out of hand, and do a Shamima: strip her of her citizenship. Enthusiasts for the erstwhile jihadi bride could at least argue that she was a teenager, too naïve to quite realise what life would be like in the Real Housewives of ISIS. The ex-first lady had no such excuse, however many Vogue profiles she starred in.

One could make excuses. Bashar was a family friend! If he was willing to gas, bomb, and murder tens of thousands of his own people, what might he have done to her if she started looking for an out?

Spare me. We should not be allowing eligible twenty-somethings to think that if they marry a dictator they can expect to be welcomed back to Britain as soon as they find themselves on the wrong side of a revolution. Since it’s a bit late for the City minister to introduce me to her aunt, and I’d struggle to see myself going gay for Kim Jong-Un, this is not a problem that I can see myself having.

Since this appears to be one of the few areas in which David Lammy has a modicum of sense, we should hope that any suggestion of Mrs Assad returning home will be dispatched forthwith. Living out their lives in a loveless marriage in a grotty Moscow suburb seems the least her and her husband are due.

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Kremlin denies Assad’s British wife wants to divorce him and return to UK

The Kremlin has rejected reports that Bashar al-Assad’s British-born wife was seeking a divorce and wanted to return to Britain.

Russia also denied claims that the deposed Syrian ruler and Asma al-Assad, his wife, had been confined to Moscow and their property assets had been frozen by Russian authorities.

Asked if the reports were true, Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said: “No they do not correspond to reality.”

No 10 refused to confirm whether Asma al-Assad would be stopped from entering the UK if she tried but said it had imposed “very tough” sanctions on the Assad family and its regime.

Turkish and Arabic media reported on Sunday that the former first lady of Syria had filed for divorce in Russia, where the Assad family were granted asylum this month after being ousted from power after 24 years by rebel forces.

Mrs Assad, 48, was born to Syrian parents and grew up in Acton, West London. She moved to Syria in 2000 and married her husband, with whom she shares three children.

The reports suggested she wanted a divorce after expressing dissatisfaction with her new life in Moscow, and that she hoped to return to London for cancer treatment.

In May, it was revealed she had been diagnosed with leukemia, having previously been treated for breast cancer between 2018 to 2019.

Mrs Assad retains British citizenship, but David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, said earlier this month she was no longer welcome in the country, implying she may soon lose her UK passport.

Mr Lammy told Parliament: “I want it confirmed that she’s a sanctioned individual and is not welcome here in the UK.

“I will do everything I can in my power to ensure that none of that family find a place in the UK,” he added.

Assets frozen

Mrs Assad had her UK assets frozen in March 2012 amid growing protests against her husband’s rule, as part of an EU sanctions programme maintained by British governments since Brexit.

On Monday, Dame Angela Eagle, the minister for border security and asylum, refused to rule out letting Mrs Assad keep her UK citizenship.

When asked directly on the topic, she said: “We do not comment on individual cases,” before adding that asylum claims were under “constant review”.

The Home Office minister said it was “standard procedure” to deny protection for anyone “who has committed crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity, [or] other serious crimes abroad”.

Theoretically, Mrs Assad could still return to London with her children. But if the UK admitted her, she would be forced to leave her husband, who would otherwise be arrested on arrival.

She could face arrest herself. The Metropolitan Police in 2021 opened a preliminary investigation into allegations that she incited and aided war crimes committed by the Assad regime’s forces during Syria’s protracted 13-year civil war.

The day after the Assads fled to Moscow, Pat McFadden, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, confirmed there had been “no contact or request for Mr Assad’s wife to come to the UK”. It is unclear if requests have since been made.

‘Notorious war profiteer’

In 2020, the US imposed sanctions on Mrs Assad, her parents and two brothers, with Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state at the time, describing her as “one of Syria’s most notorious war profiteers”.

Bader Mousa Al-Saif, a researcher at the Chatham House think tank, said that as the UK has previously stripped citizens of their nationality for joining the Islamic State, “the same, if not more, [is warranted in] the case of Asma al-Assad”.

Mrs Assad is the daughter of Fawaz Akhras, 78, a respected Harley Street cardiologist, and Sahar, 75, a former diplomat at the Syrian embassy. Her brothers Feras, 46, and Eyad, 44, are also doctors.

The family, which originally comes from Homs, still owns the £1 million terrace house just off the A40 where Mrs Assad grew up.

Mrs Assad, who was called Emma, went from a local Church of England secondary school to Queen’s College, the private girl’s school in Marylebone.

She gained a first-class degree in computer science from King’s College London and went into investment banking, joining Deutsche Bank and then JP Morgan, working in New York, Paris and London.

In 1992, she began dating Bashar al-Assad, then second-in-line to rule Syria, who was studying to be an eye doctor in London. After his brother Bassel died in a car accident in 1996, he became heir apparent.

Publicity blitz

The young couple married soon after the death of his father, Hafez, in 2000. Together, they began courting foreign dignitaries and European royals as they sought to improve Syria’s image on the world stage after decades of his father’s brutal dictatorship.

The new first lady met Queen Elizabeth II during a state visit to Buckingham Palace in 2002 and rubbed shoulders with Hollywood stars, even inviting Brad Pitt and Angeline Jolie to Damascus in 2009.

Their outwardly innocent and Western-friendly image unravelled during Assad’s savage repression of the Syrian uprising in 2011, which plunged the country into nearly 14 years of bloodshed and civil war.

The “Rose in the Desert”, as Vogue dubbed her in 2011, quickly became an international pariah as she stood by her husband and said nothing.

But as the country starved and suffered, leaked emails revealed Asma was secretly buying top-of-the range paintings, furniture, jewellery and Christian Louboutin shoes through intermediaries in Paris and London.

The Assads claimed to live a middle-class life but the true luxury they enjoyed was exposed when the rebels took Damascus and Syrians looted Assad’s presidential palace and private homes.

People were seen walking off with designer clothing, still inside its bags, showing the labels of major fashion houses including Dior and Louis Vuitton. In one of their bedrooms, the floor was covered with jewellery, antiques and other opulent goods.

Left on the floor among private family photos were damning bank records in Asma’s maiden name that showed the movement of huge sums of money, an indication of wide-scale fraud.

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