THE family of Bashar al-Assad’s wife have broken their silence amid rumours the dictator is getting divorced.
It comes amid growing calls for Brit-born Asma al-Assad – who stood by as her husband slaughtered – to have her UK passport ripped up.
Deposed Assad and his wife face living out their days trapped in a “golden cage” in exile in Moscow.
After fleeing the uprising in Syria that ended their two decade dictatorship, the Assads turned to pal Vladimir Putin for help.
They jumped on a jet and flew to Russia – and haven’t been seen in public since.
Rumours yesterday began to circulate that Asma – who married Assad when he became president – was seeking a divorce and wanted to return to the UK.
Her family however have since hit back at the claims which originated in Turkish media.
Asma’s father Fawaz Akhras told The Daily Beast: “I am able to confirm that the reports are false.”
Asma, known for her intelligence and charm, was said to be dissatisfied with her life under Putin’s thumb in Moscow.
She is said to be undergoing treatment for acute myeloid leukaemia, an aggressive form of blood and bone marrow cancer.
And it was reported she would prefer to be treated in the UK.
Her father, a London-based cardiologist, said: “She is receiving the best treatment possible.”
Asma has applied to a Russian court for permission to leave Russia for Britain, reports the Jerusalem Post.
Even if Asma did win the court case, getting into the UK is looking unlikely.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy has previously said Asma was no longer welcome in the UK, implying she may soon lose her UK passport.
Losing her passport would put Asma among notorious terror-inspired British emigres like Shamima Begum, Jack Letts, or the IS Beatles.
Lammy told MPs: “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.”
Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, told The Telegraph: “It would be an affront to the millions of Assad’s victims if his wife returned to a life of luxury in the UK.”
“She has been sanctioned by the UK Government for a reason – the Assad family were responsible for some of the worst atrocities in modern times.”
Asma was born and raised in London and she and Bashar had previously lived in the city together.
If they were banned from the UK, the exiled first family of Syria face being trapped in Russian tyrant Putin’s “golden cage”, a Russian political analyst has warned.
Pro-opposition political analyst Stanislav Belkovsky claimed that Asma wanted to return to London and go back to investment banking.
He said: “Life in Moscow, Russia – in a golden cage – is no longer satisfactory for Asma Assad.
“Western intelligence agencies are expressing extreme concern about the physical safety of Asma.”
A former Russian Prime Minister described Putin’s golden cage as having one’s entire life controlled by the Kremlin.
Mikhail Kasyanov wrote in a recent memoir Russia’s first president Boris Yeltsin had his phone tapped and the Kremlin controlled his visitors after he left office in 2000.
But, Yeltsin spent his retirement in a luxurious government-owned mansion and was often seen at major sports events.
Kasyanov wrote: “Yeltsin was very upset that they forced him to celebrate his birthday in the Kremlin and not as he wanted, freely, informally.
“I think he then finally understood that he was living as a prisoner in a golden cage. To accept this fact was of course a tragedy for him.”
Despite being in Moscow, the pair would live the life of the ultra-wealthy after they moved some 270kg of gold and £1.6billion.
Assad and his clan are believed to own dozens of apartments in the Russian capital.
They include luxury properties in both the 990ft City of Capitals complex and the nearby 1,226ft Federation Tower.
His extended family owns dozens of properties there and elsewhere in Moscow, but it is believed the family now resides in official Russian government accommodation.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected claims Asma had filed for divorce.
He said: “No they do not correspond to reality.”
The despot and his family were offered a safe haven by Vladimir Putin, who spirited the toppled president out of Syria on December 8 – shortly before his country fell into the hands of rebels.
By Sayan Bose, Foreign News Reporter
DEPOSED dictator Bashar al-Assad’s British-born wife was once seen as a symbol of freedom and woman empowerment in the repressive Middle East.
But it did not take long for Asma al-Assad, who was described as a “Rose in the Desert”, to become a hallmark of oppression while serving as the “First Lady of Hell”.
The former first lady of Syria is now in exile in Russia after Islamic rebels toppled her butcher husband’s regime, ousting the dictator and his family.
Born in England in 1975, Asma is the daughter of Fawaz Akhras, 78, a consultant cardiologist, and Sahar, 75, a diplomat at the Syrian embassy.
She grew up in a £1million mansion in West London and graduated with a computer science degree from King’s College.
She met Assad in the 1990s and they wed in 2000.
As the first lady of Syria, Asma – who does not wear a burqa or a veil to cover her face – left a strong impression of an independent woman on the world stage.
She told a friend that she was the “real dictator” in the family, according to The Telegraph.
Asma symbolised Syria’s relatively liberal political climate where women had more rights than in other Islamic nations, and shaped Assad’s image as a moderate leader.
In 2010 Vogue magazine described her as a “desert rose” and a “long-limbed beauty with a trained analytic mind”.
But her liberal fame was short-lived and quickly collapsed as her husband began a brutal saga of torture and bloodshed against the Syrians.
Assad started to wipe out the opposition groups in the city of Homs which sparked the Syrian Civil War which killed 500,000 people while six million were left as refugees.
As a strong support to her husband, Asma is said to have orchestrated policies for his oppressive regime which controlled everything from access to the internet to subsided food rations.
She controlled major economic policies in the country that were marked as repressive.
As her role within Assad’s dictatorship grew, she was unable to maintain her early image of the liberated woman operating at the heart of power in a Muslim country.
Her name soon became synonymous with her husband’s atrocious regime – and she ended up being sanctioned by many countries for her role during Syria’s civil war.
