Rifaat al-Assad, exiled uncle of former Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad, has died aged 88 in the UAE, according to media reports.

According to Reuters, Assad – the brother of the late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad – died on Tuesday.

Rifaat al-Assad was known as the “Butcher of Hama”, in reference to how forces he led brutally cracked down on an uprising in the central Syria city in 1982. 

Soldiers under his command encircled the city, bombarded it with air strikes and slaughtered an estimated 37,000 people, according to Hama hospital sources and rights groups. Seven thousand soldiers also died.

He later attempted a coup against his brother, which failed and forced him into exile in France for much of his life.

While in France, he reportedly offering intelligence to France about armed groups in exchange for state protection.

In 2013, Swiss authorities opened a war crimes investigation into his alleged role in the deaths of “several thousand people” during massacres in Hama and another in Tadmor in the early 1980s.

Assad was sentenced to four years in prison in France in June 2020 for illegally using Syrian state funds to build a French real estate empire worth at least €90m ($97m). His assets were confiscated.

When a top French court upheld the decision in September 2022, Assad left for Syria after more than 30 years in exile, having been allowed to return by his nephew Bashar.

“Disappointed” with France, he returned the Legion d’Honneur that President Francois Mitterrand had awarded him in 1986.

A photo posted on social media in April 2023 showed him among a group of people, including his newphew.

Bashar al-Assad was ousted in December 2024 by rebel groups led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, ending the Assad family’s more than 50 years of rule over Syria.

The new government has called for former officials to face prosecution over their roles in repression, wars and state corruption.

Despite numerous court cases open against him, Rifaat never saw jail time and fled to Lebanon and then Dubai after his nephew’s flight from Syria.