In the last days of his rule, Bashar Assad exported cash, valuables, and confidential documents to the UAE. In its investigation, Reuters relied on information from 14 Syrian sources, including airport employees, former intelligence officers, and the presidential guard.
According to flight tracking records, an Embraer Legacy 600 aircraft made four consecutive flights to Syria 48 hours before the regime's fall. The fourth flight was made on December 8 from the Russian military airbase Khmeimim, located near Latakia; Assad fled to Russia on the same day from the same base.
Sources reported that the plane carried unmarked black bags with cash amounting to at least 500,000 dollars, as well as documents, laptops, and hard drives with key intelligence data on a network of organizations in telecommunications, banking, real estate, and energy sectors that constituted Assad's financial empire.
The agency learned that the first flight carried Assad's relatives and presidential palace staff, as well as bags of cash; the second flight from Damascus transported paintings and several small sculptures. The third flight was loaded with bags of cash, as well as hard drives and electronic devices containing information about Assad's corporate network. On the flight from Khmeimim was Ahmed Khalil Khalil, actively working in Assad's network. He reached the Russian base in an armored UAE embassy vehicle with 500,000 dollars in cash.
The government of the new president Ahmed al-Sharaa intends to recover state funds exported abroad before the fall of Assad's regime to support Syria's economy, which suffers from sanctions and currency shortages, a senior official told Reuters.
Photo: AP