Mahir al-Assad

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Mahir al-Assad

Mahir Hafiz al-Assad ( Arabic ماهر حافظ الأسد, DMG Māhir Ḥāfiẓ al-Asad ; * December 8, 1967 ) is a Syrian military officer with the rank of major general . He is in command of the Presidential Guard and the 4th Division of the Syrian Army .

Life

Mahir is the brother of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the youngest of four sons of former President Hafiz al-Assad and his wife Anisa Machluf . After studying business administration at Damascus University, he joined the military like his older brother Basil . In October 1999 he shot his brother-in-law Asif Schaukat in the stomach during an argument , which he survived.

In the investigation of the fatal attack on Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri ordered by the UN Security Council in 2005, Mahir al-Assad was listed as one of the main suspects in the interim report by the German special investigator Detlev Mehlis , against which the Syrian government protested. The request of the investigators to question Mahir and Bashar al-Assad was not granted by the Syrian authorities. For the later established special tribunal for Lebanon , the evidence suggesting Syria's involvement was not sufficient for an indictment. The only accused so far are four members of Hezbollah .

Mahir al-Assad commanded the crackdown on a prison riot in Saidnaya in 2008 . Human rights groups have a video in which he uses his mobile phone to take pictures of dead political prisoners.

In the civil war in Syria that began in March 2011, observers ascribe a central military role to him. When the Council of the European Union imposed sanctions on Syria in May 2011, Mahir al-Assad was the first of thirteen individuals whose property in the EU was frozen. In the relevant ordinance, he is referred to as “the main leader in the violence against the demonstrators”. He has been banned from entering the European Union since December 2011, which was extended to his Sunni wife Manal as well as his mother, sister and other family members in March 2012. In June 2011, the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan condemned Mahir al-Assad's crackdown on opposition protests as inhuman and publicly called on the Syrian President to send his brother into exile. In June 2011, a video surfaced in which he personally shoots demonstrators during the 2011 protests in Damascus .

According to international media reports since August 2012, Mahir al-Assad is said to have been seriously injured and part of a hand and leg in a bomb attack in Damascus on July 18, 2012, in which his brother-in-law Schaukat and the Syrian defense minister Daud Radschha were killed have lost. Since then, however, he has resumed his active military role.

As commander of the 4th Division, he was responsible for securing the city of Kusair and the drug transport routes to the port in Latakia on the Mediterranean.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Martin Gehlen: The butcher of Syria. In: Frankfurter Rundschau . June 14, 2011, accessed June 14, 2011 .
  2. ↑ Twenty demonstrators killed near the Syrian city of Daraa. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . March 25, 2011, accessed March 28, 2011 .
  3. ^ Esther Pan: Syria's Leaders. In: Council on Foreign Relations . March 10, 2006, accessed April 26, 2011 .
  4. ↑ Murder of Hariri: Mass Protests in Syria against Mehlis Report , in: Spiegel Online of October 24, 2005, accessed on August 29, 2013
  5. ↑ "Many people have created such a dream": The Chief Public Prosecutor Mehlis' assessment of Syria's President Assad , interview on Deutschlandfunk from June 16, 2011, accessed on August 29, 2013
  6. ↑ UN Tribunal publishes names of the accused in the al-Hariri murder case , in: Zeit Online from July 29, 2011, accessed on August 29, 2013
  7. ↑ Rudolph Chimelli: In the clutches of the Assad clan. In: Süddeutsche . April 15, 2011, accessed April 15, 2011 .
  8. ↑ Regulation (EU) No. 442/2011 of the Council of May 9, 2011 on restrictive measures in view of the situation in Syria (PDF; 498 kB), accessed on August 29, 2013
  9. ↑ Decision 2011/782 / CFSP of the Council of December 1, 2011 on restrictive measures against Syria and repealing decision 2011/273 / CFSP (PDF), accessed on August 29, 2013.
  10. ↑ Implementing decision 2012/172 / CFSP of the Council of 23 March 2012 on the implementation of decision 2011/782 / CFSP on restrictive measures against Syria (PDF), accessed on 29 August 2013.
  11. ↑ Syrian leader's brother symbol of military crackdown ( Memento of the original from August 27, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / english.alarabiya.net archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Al Arabiya News of November 16, 2011, accessed August 29, 2013
  12. ↑ Maher al-Assad accused of orchestrating deadly chemical weapon attack . In: National Post of August 25, 2013 (English)
  13. ↑ Did Assad's ruthless brother mastermind alleged Syria gas attack? In: The Guardian of August 24, 2013 (English)
  14. ↑ Christoph Reuter, DER SPIEGEL: The Family War of Damascus - DER SPIEGEL - Politics. Retrieved May 18, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Assad, Mahir al-
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Assad, Mahir Hafiz al- (full name); ماهر حافظ الأسد (Arabic)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Syrian military
DATE OF BIRTH December 8, 1967