Assad's brother, Hafez Makhlouf, owns 13 of them, and the wife of Assad's cousin, Rami Makhlouf, owns two apartments. The remaining four belong to cousins of the former president. The properties ...

Makhlouf, who married late Syrian president Hafez al-Assad in 1957, rarely appeared in public even after al-Assad became president in 1971. Al-Assad ruled Syria from 1971 until his death in 2000 ...

Assad's brother, Hafez Makhlouf, owns 13 of them, while the wife of Assad's cousin, Rami Makhlouf, has two flats. The remaining four belong to cousins of the former President, with the properties ...

Ayman Abdel Nour, a university friend of Bashar al-Assad, spilled the beans on how Hafez appointed his brother-in-law Mohammad Makhlouf to look after Syria's lucrative tobacco-import monopoly ...

Hafez consolidated his authority as commander ... Economic control fell to regime allies, particularly Bashar's cousin Rami Makhlouf, who reportedly dominated 60% of Syria's economy.