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Ms Assad may want to return to her life before she moved to Syria as an investment banker in London...
Syria's former first lady Asma al-Assad is reportedly targeting a move to her native London after allegedly filing for divorce from her tyrant husband. The couple fled Damascus and sought asylum in Russia after rebels seized the capital on December 8.
It is understood the 49-year-old is seeking a move from Russia as her leukemia 'cannot be adequately monitored in Moscow'. Rumors that Asma has filed for divorce from her husband of 24 years have been rife online and there is speculation that she should split as her return to London "cannot be based on health reasons alone".
However, Asma – despite being a British citizen – cannot return to the UK due to sanctions imposed on her by the UK government. Foreign Secretary David Lammy insisted she is "not welcome in the UK".
Tory MP Robert Jenrick warned she should not be allowed to return to Britain because "the Assad family was responsible for some of the worst atrocities in modern times". He told the Telegraph: "It would be an insult to the millions of Assad's victims if his wife returned to a life of luxury in the UK."
And it has also been reported that Syria's former first lady has been in Moscow for "several weeks" seeking treatment for her cancer. However, the Kremlin denied claims reported by Turkish newspaper Haberturk that she is trying to leave her husband and seek asylum in Britain.
Political analyst Stanislav Belkovsky warned that Ms Assad may want to return to her life before she moved to Syria as an investment banker in London. He said: "Life in Moscow - in a golden cage - is no longer palatable to Asma Assad. She wants to move to London and go back to work in investment banking [and] at the same time, if possible , to remove a part of her family's capital from sanctions".
Despite the bleak outlook that Asma's life has taken in Russia, she started life in the suburbs of London, in Acton.
She was born in 1975, to a Syrian father, cardiologist Faëaz Akhras, who worked in Harley Street, and a diplomat mother, Sahar. Despite her parents' conservative Muslim background, Asma was educated at the secular Queen's College in Marylebone, where friends called her Emma.
She then went on to study at King's College London, where she graduated in 1996 with a degree in computer science and French literature. After college, she worked as an investment banker for Deutsche Bank in New York before returning to London to work at Morgan Stanley.
She first met Bashar al-Assad, who was studying to be a doctor, at London's Western Eye hospital in the 1990s. At the time, Bashar was described as a "handsome lad" by his peers.
They became part of an article in 2000, after the reunion in Damascus, when Asma was visiting family in the capital. At this stage, Bashar was next in line to rule Syria after his brother Bassel died in a car accident.
The pair married in the same year when Asma was 25 and Bashar a decade older. And it wasn't long before Bashar's father, Hafez – who ruled the country with an iron fist for three decades – died, paving the way for his son to take power.
The couple unveiled plans to reform the country with Asma focusing on the arts, to facilitate Syria's transformation into a cultural hub. They had some success and even attracted famous stars Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Sting and Damon Albarn to the country.
However, when the Arab Spring emerged in 2011, the true nature of Syria's leadership was revealed as Assad launched a devastating crackdown on protesters and the opposition. An estimated 13,000 Syrians were tortured and Assad even used chemical weapons against his own people during the civil war.
Despite the hardships the civil war brought upon the Syrian people, Asma and her husband continued to live in luxury as international aid was channeled through her charitable foundation, the Syrian Trust. That was until the regime fell on December 8 and they were forced to flee to Russia, where they sought asylum from Vladimir Putin's government. /Adapted "Pamphlet" from "Daily Star"
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