BUTCHER DUCKS TRIAL

AN evil tyrant, dubbed the ‘Butcher of Hama’, may finally escape justice in a money laundering trial.

Syrian Rifaat al-Assad, who owned property on the Rock and used a Gibraltar-based company to run his affairs in Europe, is accused of laundering €700 million in property in Spain.

But it is deemed unlikely that he will turn up for his trial at Spain’s national court in May.

The uncle of the current Syrian dic-

Gibraltar-linked tyrant Rifaat alAssad ‘in intensive care’ as court case due to resume

tator Bashar al-Assad is currently in an Intensive Care Unit of a hospital in Damascus, claim his lawyers. Al-Assad - who gassed his opponents, including children - had previously been the owner of Gibraltar office block, 6-9 Europort, until he controversially sold his stake cheaply in 2018.

As the Olive Press exclusively revealed, the 86-year-old had cashed in his shares in the complex for around £13 million under market value.

The sale to the Isola family was criticised by Together Gibraltar leader Marlene Hassan Nahon, who said the £17.5 million sale should never have happened.

It came as most other European countries had embargoed his hundreds of properties and bank accounts at the time.

Will it rain on the parade?

While the tourists might disagree, most locals and long-term expats are preying for the heavens to open this Easter as we approach a summer of drought...And as the Spanish will tell you it always seems to pour during Semana Santa. Happy Easter come rain or shine!

See Spain’s Weirdest Easter Events on p6 and Rain God on our back page

However, Chief Minister Fabian Picardo later insisted ‘the rule of law’ had prevailed after a High Court rubber stamped the transfer of ownership. He also assured Parliament that law enforcement had cooperated fully with a French investigation that sentenced him to four years in prison in 2020. Authorities will now seize al-Assad’s assets in France, which add up to at least €90 mil-

EVIL: Rifaat al-Assad laundered hundreds of millions, while (right) how we reported it lion in value.

Al-Assad - who earned his nickname when he killed 25,000 people in a ruthless crackdown in 1982 - is alleged to have also invested hundreds of millions in Spain, with over 100 properties in Marbella alone. Most of them were bought via shell companies set up in Gibraltar by disgraced accountancy firm Marrache and Co.

Prosecutors expect a similar verdict in Spain, except his assets are eight times greater, valued at €700 mil- lion.

They estimate that he has over 500 properties in Spain, including businesses like the Hotel Park Plaza Suites in Benabola and the Plaza Beach Banus.

He is facing eight years in prison

Continues on page 4

DISGRACED GIB ACCOUNTANTS ‘RAN AL-ASSAD EMPIRE’

THE disgraced Gibraltar accountancy firm run by the Marrache brothers was ‘the most important’ part of Al-Assad’s money laundering scheme, court documents claim.

In a pre-trial report it was alleged Isaac and Benjamin Marrache helped him and his family operate a complex network of dozens of shell companies to help move around millions and invest in property in Spain.

“The most important gestores (financial managers) in Gibraltar were the Marrache brothers, who have already been sentenced to severe prison terms,” the documents obtained by the Olive Press read.

The Gibraltar connection began in 1998, when Al-Assad allegedly set up High Mountain Estates LTD in the Bahamas, which in turn was owned by the Alhambra Trust, also owned by Al-Assad.

The former was the umbrella to 29 different Gibraltar companies, 1% of each of those being owned by another company, Groove Limited. In other words, High Mountain Estates Ltd owned 99% of each of these 29 companies and Groove Limited owned the remaining 1% of each.

In turn, Hiba Development SA owned 99% of Groove Limited, with the remaining 1% being owned by Raja Barakat, the wife of Rifaat Al-Assad.

It was a highly complex system built to hide the true owners of the companies which would acquire millions of euros worth of assets in Spain.

These included several properties within the luxury Gray d’Albion development in Puerto Banus, which would later be seized in 2017. These companies were then transferred to Spain where, with the help of Marrache & Co, they constantly changed hands among Assad family members and trusted allies.

Benjamin and Isaac Marrache, the two brothers mentioned in the papers, were sentenced to between seven and 11 years each on charges of conspiracy to defraud in 2014.

Marrache & Co’s involvement with the Assads ceased in 2010, when both were first arrested and their offices raided.

They were jailed in a separate case for conspiracy to defraud millions of pounds from clients of the collapsed law firm and have been disbarred as lawyers.

Women meet up

MINISTER of Equality Samantha Sacramento brought together the last two cycles of her women’s mentorship programme at a networking event.

Boom time

PORT authorities removed the protective boom around the OS 35 and crane barges dismantling it as gale force winds and heavy swells hit on Wednesday.

Training up

NHS England trained Care Agency staff, prison workers and police officers for two days on how to deal with sexual offenders and victims in late March.

Baby care

SAINT Bernard’s Hospital opened its new Special Baby Care Unit funded by the Kusuma Trust in April.

A MAN who choked and threatened to kill a pregnant woman has been sentenced to eight months in prison.

Imad El Haik Massaoud, 33, of Prince Edwards Road, pleaded guilty to three charges of common assault and threatening to kill the victim.

Police said that Massaoud com -