Inside depraved world of billionaire butcher Bashar al-Assad who slaughtered children with help from best pal Putin
SYRIAN dictator Bashar al-Assad became the first sitting head of state to be subject to an arrest warrant in a foreign national court on Wednesday.
The billionaire despot, protected by Putin, has committed an unimaginable number of heinous crimes against civilians during his reign of terror.
Dictator Assad, 58, has been heavily involved in the Syrian civil war which has claimed the lives of thousands since 2011.
The billionaire butcher has faced international condemnation for the danger and poverty that his civilians continue to live in as he enjoys a life of luxury.
And Steve Kostas, senior managing lawyer with the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI), told The Sun: "There needs to be justice for these truly heinous crimes".
This week a case filed by the OSJI is attempting to hold the dictator accountable for his part in a 2013 chemical attack that killed over 1,000 - mostly women and children.
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LIFE OF LUXURY
Assad, alongside British-born wife Asma dubbed “the First Lady of Hell”, owns multiple palaces, private jets and is the owner of a billion-dollar fortune.
The pair own the opulent resident People's Palace in capital Damascus, which is thought to have cost £800,000.
But the murderous pair’s ultra-modern mansion is thought to be used more for meeting foreign leaders and officials rather than as a home.
Some believe the reviled leaders even live in a bunker deep beneath the capital city, while others think he may have moved his family to the coastal Latakia palace.
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US Department of State estimates put the Assad family's net worth at between $1-2 billion.
PALS WITH PUTIN
Al-Assad, re-elected in 2021 with 95.1 per cent of the vote - according to Syrian officials - has long been supported by fellow despot Vladimir Putin.
The twisted pair have both been accused around the globe of crimes against humanity, and have shielded one another from the consequences of various heinous acts.
In 2000, Vladimir Putin became president of Russia as Bashar al-Assad became president of Syria.
Over the years what was a solid relationship became a rock solid alliance until Russia, along with China, even blocked a UN resolution from the Security Council concerning Syria.
The tactial move prevented the UN from bringing the case to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and investigating Assad.
Kostas said: "There's a long standing alliance between those, between those two governments.
"Russia has been the protector and enabler of Assad's crimes, including his use of chemical weapons."
Moscow has also feared a rise in radical extremism if the Assad regime was ever toppled.
In 2015, when his rule was appearing to falter, Russia protected it.
Kostas told The Sun: "Russia intervened in a full scale way, engaged in significant bombing of Aleppo and other opposition held areas of Syria.
"It has really been like the main protector of the Assad regime since then."
He said that Putin's government has also been heavily involved in propaganda attempting to "cast doubt on serious use of chemical weapons".
If it were not for Russia's blocking of the ICC in investigating Assad's "heinous crimes", Kostas claims one could argue that the national courts in France may not need to be issuing a warrant for his arrest.
The unprecedented move, issued by judges in France, comes off the back of years of work compiling evidence against Assad.
ARREST WARRANT & WAR CRIMES
The Ghouta attacks - the deadliest use of chemical weapons since the Iran-Iraq war - saw rockets filled with toxic sarin hit two suburbs in Syria's capital Damascus, Douma and Ghouta.
Syrian civilians who fled to France filed a complaint about the deadly attacks leading French courts to issue an international arrest warrant for the billionaire butcher.
Warrants are also out for his brother, a special adviser and the head of one of the branches for the Syrian chemical weapons program.
Kostas spoke to The Sun about the case against Assad which he has worked on since its inception in 2017.
Using the testimony of defectors from the Syrian government, international experts on its chemical weapons program, victims, witnesses and doctors - the organisation submitted a catalogue of evidence to investigators.
Kostas said that the evidence relates to Assad's presidential palace and "his personal role in ordering and coordinating the attacks."
It is not the only chemical attack unleashed by Assad on his country.
In 2018 the US accused him of "genocide" in the wake of another hit on Douma, as Russia vetoed the UN-launched probe.
But the Russia-backed tyrant has repeatedly lied to about fatalities in such attacks and denied the attacks coming from inside his own regime.
Horrendous footage widely circulated over the years shows the Syrian children suffocating from chemical gas, dead bodies covering the streets and destroyed towns.
Kostas told The Sun he hopes the "unprecedented" move on Wednesday could help pave the way for justice down the line.
"This is absolutely an unprecedented event in international justice or injustice for international crimes.
"Never before has the head of sitting head of state been subjected to an arrest warrant by a foreign national court.
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"No person is above accountability for the most heinous crimes, for the rights of victims to justice."