The exiled uncle of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was found guilty on Wednesday of acquiring millions of euros worth of French property using funds diverted from the Syrian state, and sentenced to four years in prison.
The French court ordered the seizure of all of Rifaat al-Assad's property in France - which judicial sources estimate are worth 100 million euros ($113 million) - as well as a property worth 29 million euros in London.
Rifaat al-Assad, 82, has lived in exile, mostly in France, since the mid-1980s, after being accused of trying to seize power from his brother, then-President Hafez al-Assad, Bashar's father. He previously commanded troops accused of killing thousands of people to crush an Islamist uprising in 1982.