Assad's critically ill wife 'barred' from returning to Britain for cancer treatment after passport expired
The critically ill wife of the former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has reportedly been barred from returning to Britain for cancer treatment after her passport expired.
Asma al-Assad, 49, will be unable to come back to her native London without her official travel documents amid reports she is severely ill with leukemia and has only a '50-50' chance of survival.
It comes after her renowned cardiologist father, Fawaz Akhras, left his Harley Street clinic in what appears to be an effort to care for his daughter who fled to Russia following the collapse of her husband's brutal regime.
Speculation has been swirling in recent days that Asma is looking to divorce Assad, and that she wants to return to Britain to continue her vital cancer treatment.
Whitehall sources, however, have confirmed that Asma, who also holds Syrian nationality, no longer possesses valid British travel documentation after her passport expired in 2020.
The home secretary Yvette Cooper has also stated that the government will not allow her to return to the country, as the decision 'cannot be based solely on health reasons'.
Previously, the foreign secretary David Lammy, told MPs that Asma, who was born and raised in Acton, west London, is 'not welcome here'.
Asma became Syria's first lady in 2000 after marrying Assad, 59, , in Syria in the same year he took over control of the country, after the death of his father, Hafez al-Assad, who died aged 69.
Critics believe she orchestrated a secretive labyrinth of committees and policies, run by her henchman, which controlled everything from access to the internet to subsided food rations.
Her empire also extended to the distribution of foreign aid - effectively she controlled who got what when.
With her role within Assad's dictatorship growing, she was unable to maintain her early image of the liberated woman operating at the heart of power in a Muslim country.
She became one and the same with the Syrian regime's terrible suppression of its people.
Her role in Syria's financial policy also earned her the widespread, unenviable nickname of 'Lady Macbeth' from rebels and commentators alike.
In 2012, Asma was placed under UK and EU sanctions, which constituted an asset freeze and travel ban, after she was believed to have played a key role in supporting Assad throughout Syria's civil war, which began with opposition protests in 2011 and resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths.
Asma is currently exiled in Moscow with her husband and three children after they were given asylum by Vladimir Putin when rebels took control of Damascus in a lightning advance on December 8.
But the former first lady, who left behind a life of luxury, is said to be dissatisfied with her new life under the guard of Putin's regime and reportedly wants to return to London.
She has applied to a Russian court for permission to leave Russia for Britain which is being evaluated by the Russian authorities.
Reports suggested that the toppled dictator and his family are under 'severe restrictions' in Moscow, with Assad reportedly barred from leaving the city or engaging in political activities.
Assad's wider family are believed to own dozens of apartments in the Russian capital and he reportedly moved to Moscow some 270 kilograms of gold and £1.6 billion with him when he fled Syria.
But his assets and money in the country are now said to have been frozen, unconfirmed reports have stated.
After recovering from breast cancer in 2019, Asma was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia, an aggressive cancer of the bone marrow and the blood, in May this year.
Last week The Telegraph reported that she had been given a '50-50' chance of survival and was being kept in isolation to prevent her catching an infection from others.
'Asma is dying,' a source close to the Akhras family told the newspaper. 'She can't be in the same room as anyone.'
Another source said: 'When leukaemia comes back, it's vicious. She has been 50-50 in the last few weeks.'
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