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Asma Al-Assad

March 24, 2012 by · Comments Off on Asma Al-Assad 

Asma Al-Assad, The President of Syria Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma al-Assad in 2010. It was announced on March 21, 2012 that the European Union plans to ban Asma al-Assad from traveling to or shopping in the EU after the release of e-mails revealed her support of the president’s brutal crackdown on the Syrian opposition.

The European Union has slapped sanctions on Asma al-Assad, the wife of Syria’s president, who was recently exposed over online shopping sprees involving retailers in London and Paris as her husband continued a vicious crackdown on his people.

All assets she may have there have also been frozen, the Associated Press reported.

It was also revealed British officials are looking at the possibility of stripping Assad, a 36-year-old British-born ex-banker, of the British half of her dual citizenship, the Vancouver Sun reported.

Assad once projected the image of a glamorous woman with Western-inspired values. However, Reuters noted, she had stood by her husband’s actions through the bloody, year-long crackdown on the Syrian opposition which according to the UN has left at least 8,000 people dead.

Asma Al Assad

March 23, 2012 by · Comments Off on Asma Al Assad 

Asma Al Assad, Asma al-Assad, the British-born wife of Syrian President Bashar, will be hit with a travel ban and have her assets in the EU frozen today.  The four women closest to President Assad are to be added to the European Union’s sanctions list at a meeting of Europe’s foreign ministers today.

The Syrian leader’s wife, mother, sister and sister-in-law will be added to the travel ban and asset freeze blacklist as the EU steps pressure on Assad’s inner circle and family.

The inclusion of Asma al-Assad follows the leak of emails detailing her shopping sprees earlier this week.

William Hague, the Foreign Secretary said: “Their behaviour continues to be murdering and totally unacceptable in the eyes of the world.”

The 36-year-old former investment banker and the female relatives of regime members will join another eight government officials and two oil firms added to 114 Syrians and 38 organisations subject to freezes on their assets and bank accounts in EU member states.

EU and British officials have faith that the move will add to the “stranglehold” on the regime, though it has survived 11 previous rounds of sanctions.

Like others already listed, Mrs Assad is likely to be subject to an EU travel ban, though this would not prevent her travelling to Britain, if she has retained her British citizenship.

Asma Al-Assad

February 8, 2012 by · Comments Off on Asma Al-Assad 

Asma Al-Assad, Asma al-Assad has been condemned for supporting her husband, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, as the bombardment of her family’s home city, Homs, goes on. But do autocrats’ wives ever rein in their husbands?

The first public intervention of British-born Asma al-Assad, 36, since the uprising began in Syria nearly a year ago was an email from her office to the Times newspaper in London.

In it she expressed her support for her husband, the president, while stating that she “comforts” the “victims of the violence”.

It’s estimated by human rights groups and activists that more than 7,000 people – 2,000 members of the security services, and 5,000 others – have been killed in the unrest, and Syrian opposition supporters promptly condemned Mrs Assad’s “hypocrisy”.

But her stance should come as no surprise, says Rime Allaf, an associate fellow of Chatham House, the London foreign affairs think tank.

“Why are we shaming her and saying she should do something? There was never any question that she would do anything else.

“Even if, deep down, she was not happy with what’s happening, she wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.

“And even if, between four walls, she told him ‘I don’t approve of this’, we wouldn’t know about it. Let’s be more realistic about this.”

Asma Al Assad

February 8, 2012 by · Comments Off on Asma Al Assad 

Asma Al Assad, Asma al-Assad has been condemned for supporting her husband, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, as the bombardment of her family’s home city, Homs, goes on. But do autocrats’ wives ever rein in their husbands?

The first public intervention of British-born Asma al-Assad, 36, since the uprising began in Syria nearly a year ago was an email from her office to the Times newspaper in London.

In it she expressed her support for her husband, the president, while stating that she “comforts” the “victims of the violence”.

It’s estimated by human rights groups and activists that more than 7,000 people – 2,000 members of the security services, and 5,000 others – have been killed in the unrest, and Syrian opposition supporters promptly condemned Mrs Assad’s “hypocrisy”.

But her stance should come as no surprise, says Rime Allaf, an associate fellow of Chatham House, the London foreign affairs think tank.

“Why are we shaming her and saying she should do something? There was never any question that she would do anything else.

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