Assad Emails: Father-in-Law Gave Advice From UK During Crackdown
A Harley Street cardiologist has been acting as a close adviser to the president of Syria during his regime’s brutal crackdown on anti-government activists, according to a cache of what appear to be emails sent and received by Bashar al-Assad and his wife.
Dr Fawas Akhras, who is the father of Assad’s wife, Asma, used a private email channel to the Syrian leader to offer advice on how the regime should spin its suppression of the uprising, including how best to rebut graphic video footage appearing to show the torture of children by Syrian forces.
The 66-year-old west London-based consultant has until now been regarded as a modernising influence on his son-in-law. He is co-chair of the British Syrian Society, which has said it is “saddened and appalled at the violence and loss of life in Syria”, where more than 8,000 people are believed to have been killed since the uprising against Assad’s rule began a year ago.
But a collection of several thousand messages to and from the Assads’ private email accounts obtained by the Guardian appears to show that as the violence escalated in recent months, Akhras offered the Syrian president detailed political and media handling advice as well as moral support in dozens of emails direct to his personal inbox.
The emails were intercepted by members of a Syrian opposition group between June 2011 and February 2012. The Guardian has made extensive attempts to verify their authenticity by cross-checking information in them and contacting individuals whose mails appear in the cache.
The Guardian contacted Akhras at his surgery on Thursday and also approached him via intermediaries inviting him to comment. At the time this article was published he had not responded.
The revelation that Akhras has taken such an active role helping the Syrian regime will create embarrassment for a number of establishment figures with links to him. Fellow directors of the British Syrian Society include Sir Andrew Green, former UK ambassador to Syria, and Sir Gavyn Arthur, former lord mayor of London, while Lord (Charles) Powell, Margaret Thatcher’s former chief of staff, is a trustee of the Syria Heritage Foundation, a British charity set up by Akhras.
The string of emails between Akhras and Assad over a nine-month period appear to show that the doctor was particularly concerned about how better to present the regime’s actions internationally. They also reveal a frank and friendly relationship between the two men, with many signed off by Akhras “warmest”.
Late last December, Akhras advised Assad to respond to a Channel 4 film showing video evidence of civilians, including children, being tortured in Syria, by suggesting it could be dismissed as British propaganda aimed at triggering a Syrian genocide. In a direct email to the president he attached an article suggesting as much and said it “might be of some help towards drafting the embassy’s response to [the] Channel 4 video”