Syria: Makhlouf’s wife flees to UAE

The wife of disgraced Syrian businessman Rami Makhlouf has left the country for the United Arab Emirates.

According to security officials at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport, Razan Othman left via Lebanon last week.

Lebanese officials said that Othman entered the country on 2 October with her two children and six other people, and caught a flight to Dubai on the same day.

Al-Kalima Online, however, claimed that she left Lebanon with her brother and sister, six children, domestic workers and another companion.

Syria tycoon Rami Makhlouf: Largest fraud in Middle East is in Syria

Her departure for the UAE comes after Othman’s husband, the once influential Syrian businessman Rami Makhlouf, fell out of favour with his cousin Bashar Al-Assad after supporting the Syrian President financially for decades.

The rift between Assad and Makhlouf appeared last year when the former demanded millions of dollars from the businessman in order to pay the regime’s debts to Russia for its support in the ongoing civil war. Assad then froze Makhlouf’s assets and limited his influence, leading the businessman to complain publicly on Facebook about his treatment and social demise.

In his social media posts, Makhlouf also revealed a vast business network of front companies abroad and offshore tax havens used to circumvent international sanctions and fund the regime for many years.