“There is a mall in Moscow called Afiamall [City]... Bashar al-Assad and his brother, Maher al-Assad, have apartments on the top of the mall,” Parwin Ibrahim told Rudaw’s Dilbxwin Dara.
In a video which went viral on social media earlier this week, Ibrahim is seen sitting at a cafeteria close to the table of two men. Ibrahim said one of the men is Maher al-Assad, who used to head the country’s most notorious military unit before fleeing the country in December when a group of rebel forces ousted his brother.
The Kurdish politician believes that Many members of the Assad family and former senior members of the ousted dictator’s cabinet live in Russia.
The video was recorded two weeks ago, noted Ibrahim.
“One of my relatives and I went to the cafeteria. We saw someone passing by us. He was accompanied by a young man. When they sat down, I stared at them and realized that it was him [Maher al-Assad]. Moments later, I stared at him again [to make sure it was him]. He also looked at me and noticed that I was staring at him. After this, he covered his face with his hand and looked at his mobile. I asked my relative to film him as I was certain that it was him,” Ibrahim recounted.
The Damascus-based Kurdish politician believes that there are around 250 commanders affiliated with Assad’s regime in Moscow. She noted that these people did not go with the former dictator but days after the regime fell.
Maher al-Assad, once the regime’s chief enforcer, directed the military’s most brutal crackdowns during the 2011 uprising and commanded both the 4th Division and the Republican Guard - elite units used to violently suppress dissent.
He is the younger brother of the former president and is currently under US and European sanctions.
In 2023, French authorities issued an international arrest warrant for Maher al-Assad, along with his brother and two senior army generals, accusing them of complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity - charges that include involvement in a 2013 chemical attack on rebel-controlled suburbs of Damascus.
