Bashar al-Assad’s Brit wife ‘given 50/50 chance of beating cancer’

Bashar al-Assad’s British wife is severely ill from leukaemia and has been given a ’50/50′ chance of survival by doctors, sources in contact with the family claim. Asma al-Assad reportedly fled to Moscow weeks before her husband to receive cancer treatment, before the Syrian regime fell earlier this month.

Amid contested reports the 49-year-old is now seeking to leave as her health condition ‘cannot be adequately monitored in Moscow’, sources told the Telegraph her ‘devastated’ father, a Harley Street doctor, has been looking after her in Russia . Ms Assad’s leukaemia, diagnosed in May, is understood to have returned after a brief period of remission, the outlet reports. 

‘Asma is dying,’ a source who has spoken directly to the family in recent weeks said. ‘She can’t be in the same room with anyone [because of her condition].’ Ms Assad is understood to have been kept away from others to avoid complicating infections as she undergoes cancer treatment. The former First Lady has reportedly been in Moscow ‘for several weeks’ seeking medical supports, according to sources familiar with the escape.

Rumours circulated this week that Ms Assad could now be seeking divorce from her partner of 24 years as a ‘precondition’ for her return to London as a return ‘cannot be based solely on health reasons’. Ms Assad, a dual Syrian-British national, is currently exiled in Moscow with her husband following the fall of the Syrian capital on December 8. Her father, Fawaz Akhras, is understood to have joined her earlier this month after the move to Moscow. 

Sources told the Telegraph he has been caring for her for much of the last six months, in Moscow and the UAE, as she battles a ‘vicious’ form of cancer. ‘She has been 50/50 in the last few weeks,’ a source in contact with the family said. Reports this week claimed she was looking to leave her husband and flee Russia to return to the UK amid her health battle. The Kremlin was quick to push back on the claims reported by Turkish outlet Haberturk. But analysts have signalled fears for her safety in Moscow, describing her life in Moscow as a ‘golden cage’ under the thumb of President Vladimir Putin.

‘Life in Moscow, Russia – in a golden cage – is no longer satisfactory for Asma Assad,’ pro-opposition political analyst Stanislav Belkovsky warned this week. ‘She wants to move to London, UK and return to work in investment banking [and] at the same time, if possible, to remove part of her family’s capital from sanctions.’ Despite having British citizenship, Ms Assad remains bound by sanctions, which No10 confirmed yesterday would block her from being able to return to the UK.

While Russian authorities are now reportedly considering her application to leave, the Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, has insisted she is ‘not welcome here in the UK’ due to sanctions. No10 refused to comment on whether she could have her citizenship revoked to stop her coming to the UK. Assad himself is said to have been restricted to living in Moscow, where the family reportedly own at least 18 luxury flats, and cannot travel the country. 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 ($2b) with him when he fled Syria.

But his assets and money in the country are now said to have been frozen, unconfirmed reports added. Contested reports shared Sunday claimed that Ms Assad was ‘[dissatisfied] with her living conditions in Moscow’. She reportedly applied to the courts for special permission to leave Moscow. This was ‘currently under evaluation’ and ‘the result has not yet been determined’ as of last week, Haberturk reported.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov rejected the claims and denied that the former president, a long-time ally of Putin, had been confined to Moscow. Asked on a conference call if the reports corresponded to reality, Peskov said: ‘No they do not correspond to reality.’ There has been so far no comment on the divorce reports from al-Assad or his wife.

Ms Assad was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia ‘after presenting with several symptoms and following a comprehensive series of medical tests and examinations,’ a statement shared in May said. While in Syria, she was to ‘adhere to a specialized treatment protocol that includes stringent infection prevention measures’ and would ‘temporarily withdraw from all direct engagements’ as part of the treatment plan, it added. Acute myeloid leukemia is an aggressive cancer of the bone marrow and the blood. Ms Assad was previously been treated for breast cancer.

In August 2019, she announced that she was ‘completely’ free of the disease a year after her diagnosis. Ms Assad, a controversial figure through the war, was born and raised in the United Kingdom, where she went by ‘Emma’ growing up. Her parents lived in a modest home in North Acton, West London where they raised their daughter, who went on to become an investment banker.

She later left her career behind to marry the then-newly minted President Bashar Assad, in 2000. She maintained a public role as First Lady, promoting civil and charity groups, but has been accused of using her British education and Western style to try to mask the brutality of her husband’s crackdown on dissent. Neighbours told MailOnline that Ms Assad’s parents left for Moscow at the start of December, where their daughter, Assad and grandchildren are seeking asylum under Vladimir Putin.

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