As prisoners were set free from their subterranean jail cells around Damascus, shocked crowds roamed the ousted former president Bashar al-Assad’s mansions to grab what they could carry – and marvel at the trappings of his wealth.
Pictures from the presidential palace showed a man carrying a beige plush chair over his shoulder as people roamed the tiled floors beneath intricate carved wooden ceilings. In another image, a smashed chandelier lay in a courtyard beneath an ornate sloping staircase, a crumpled Syrian flag bunched among the broken glass. More images showed wooden furniture and fittings that had been carried into the garden outside as people attempted to haul them away.
Video showed one man running through one of Assad’s houses in the al-Maliki neighbourhood, over its plush red carpets, shiny marble floors and past a rack of clothes including a Dior garment bag.
“I’m in the president’s house!” he shouted breathlessly, running through rooms unable to believe what is happening, pausing at one point to throw a portrait of Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria for decades before handing power to his son, to the floor with a crash.
The halls and opulent bedrooms of Assad’s mansions appeared eerily empty, save for looters and spectators, after the former leader often referred to as “the butcher of Damascus” fled to Moscow with his family. The whereabouts of many other notable figures from the inner circle of the Assad regime remained unknown, amid rumours they had also fled the country as insurgent forces closed in, their mansions also left empty.
The state department estimated the net wealth of the Assad family at up to £1.6bn in a 2022 report to Congress, adding this remained an estimate due to their extensive collection of family assets “that are believed to be spread out and concealed in numerous accounts, real estate portfolios, corporations, and offshore tax havens”.
The Assads, they added, had deep “patronage relationships with Syria’s largest economic players, using their companies to launder money from illicit activities and funnel funds to the regime. These networks penetrate all sectors of the Syrian economy.”
While the Assad family and their friends enjoyed the trappings of their wealth, Syrians starved. A 2022 World Bank report said 14.5 million people, almost 70% of the population, lived in poverty while extreme poverty affected one in every four people.
A Syrian influencer and comedian called Fady Maaz shared videos of his finds inside one of the Assad’s houses, rifling through a fridge filled with bags of meat, with what appeared to be a paper bag from the luxury brand Hermès left in front of the fridge. In another room, groups of people ransacked racks filled with artworks and paintings, wading through piles of boxes and paper strewn on the floor.
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Maaz filmed himself dragging a Louis Vuitton suitcase that appeared to be bursting at the seams, and costs an estimated £36,500. In another video, he went into the gym and filmed himself on the elliptical, turning to the floor-length mirror to reveal him standing atop the equipment in a hoodie and jeans.
Others entered a spacious garage filled with Assad’s car collection, filming dozens of luxury cars including Aston Martins and a Lamborghini. A new shiny black Lexus four-wheel-drive was parked near a rare red Ferrari F50, which can cost £1.5m.