Rifaat al-Assad, the uncle of deposed Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad who was known as the “Butcher of Hama” for his role in a brutal crackdown in the 1980s, has died aged 88, two sources close to the family have said.
Once a pillar of the Assad family’s dynastic rule, Rifaat “died after suffering from influenza for around a week”, a source who worked in Syria’s presidential palace for more than three decades told AFP on Wednesday. A second source, a former officer of Syria’s army in the Assad era, confirmed the death, adding that Rifaat had moved to the United Arab Emirates after his nephew’s government was toppled by rebels in December 2024, without specifying whether he died there.
Rifaat earned his nickname for his role in the February 1982 massacre in Hama, part of a crackdown on an armed revolt by the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood. His brother Hafez al-Assad, then Syria’s ruler, launched the campaign, which government forces carried out under Rifaat’s command as head of the elite Defence Brigades. The death toll from 27 days of violence, which occurred under a media blackout, has never been formally established, though estimates range from 10,000 to 40,000.
Swiss prosecutors had accused Rifaat of ordering “murders, acts of torture, inhumane treatment and illegal detentions” while an officer in the Syrian army. He also served as vice-president under his brother Hafez but went into exile in 1984 after a failed attempt to overthrow him, moving to Switzerland then France. He later presented himself as an opponent of his nephew Bashar, who succeeded Hafez in 2000.
In 2021, he returned to Syria from France to escape a four-year prison sentence for money laundering and misappropriation of Syrian public funds. Two years later, he appeared in a family photo alongside Bashar, his wife Asma, and other relatives. Shortly after Bashar’s ousting, Rifaat crossed into Lebanon and then flew out of Beirut airport, a Lebanese security source said at the time, without specifying his final destination.
