Hafez Makhlouf

Makhlouf was born in Damascus on 2 April 1971.{{cite web|title=List of persons and entities referred to in articles 3 and 4|url=http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2011:164:0020:0021:EN:PDF|publisher=Official Journal of the European Union|access-date=19 July 2012|date=24 June 2011}} He is a maternal cousin of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and the brother of Rami Makhlouf, a leading businessman in Syria. He is also a cousin of Atef Najib, former political security chief in the city of Daraa.{{Cite book |last=Dagher |first=Sam |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1041615345 |title=Assad or we burn the country : how one family's lust for power destroyed Syria |date=2019 |isbn=978-0-316-51830-7 |location=New York |oclc=1041615345}} Makhlouf was commissioned into the Republican Guard in 1992 and was a close friend of Bassel al-Assad, the elder brother of Bashar al-Assad. Makhlouf was injured in the high-speed car crash in 1994 that resulted in Bassel's death.{{cite news|last=Sipress|first=Alan|title=Assad's Son is Killed in a Car|url=http://articles.philly.com/1994-01-22/news/25823222_1_rifaat-assad-basil-assad-damascus-radio|access-date=13 July 2012|newspaper=Inquirer|date=22 January 1994|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303210132/http://articles.philly.com/1994-01-22/news/25823222_1_rifaat-assad-basil-assad-damascus-radio|archive-date=3 March 2016}}

Makhlouf was a Colonel of the Army and the head of Section 40 at the General Security Directorate's Internal Branch (251) until 2014.{{cite news|last=Kaphie|first=Anud|title=Who's who in Bashar al-Assad's inner circle?|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/whos-who-in-bashar-al-assads-inner-circle/2012/07/18/gJQAd5BftW_blog.html|access-date=10 March 2013|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=18 July 2012|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120818231430/http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/whos-who-in-bashar-al-assads-inner-circle/2012/07/18/gJQAd5BftW_blog.html|archive-date=18 August 2012}}{{cite journal|title=List of peoples|journal=Official Journal of the European Union|date=24 May 2011|volume=136|url=http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2011:164:0020:0021:EN:PDF|access-date=10 March 2013}} In late 2014, he was transferred to GID headquarters. In November 2014, Col. Hafez Makhlouf also met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Cairo. In 2017, he was promoted to brigadier general and entrusted with relations with the Iranian intelligence services and the Lebanese Hezbollah. In 2018, Brig. Gen. Hafez Makhlouf returned to his post in the GID, overseeing import of weapons into Syria from Russia and Belarus.[https://blacklist.pro-justice.org/criminal/hafez-mohamad-makhlouf/ HAFEZ MOHAMAD MAKHLOUF]

Makhlouf was sanctioned by the US Department of the Treasury in 2007 for "undermining the sovereignty of Lebanon or its democratic processes and institutions." The sanctions called for freezing "any assets the designees may have located in the United States", and prohibited U.S. persons from engaging in transactions with these individuals".{{cite web|last=Sharp|first=Jeremy M.|title=Unrest in Syria and U.S. Sanctions Against the Asad Regime|url=https://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/171370.pdf|publisher=Congressional Research Service|access-date=21 July 2012|format=CRS Report for Congress|date=9 August 2011|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130306070502/http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/171370.pdf|archive-date=6 March 2013}} Makhlouf was further sanctioned in 2011 by the United States in May, the EU in September.{{Cite web|title=All the Tyrant's Men: Chipping Away at the Assad Regime's Core|url=https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/all-tyrants-men-chipping-away-assad-regimes-core|access-date=2021-12-29|website=The Washington Institute|language=en}} In November 2011 the Arab League imposed a travel ban on him.

Swiss authorities froze Hafez Makhlouf's account of about 3 million euros in a Geneva bank for suspected money laundering in 2011.{{cite news|last=Inman|first=Phillip|title=Assad keeps it all in the family with a hoard up to $1.5bn|url=http://www.smh.com.au/world/assad-keeps-it-all-in-the-family-with-a-hoard-up-to-15bn-20120720-22fny.html|access-date=20 July 2012|newspaper=The Sydney Herald Morning|date=21 July 2012|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171009203140/http://www.smh.com.au/world/assad-keeps-it-all-in-the-family-with-a-hoard-up-to-15bn-20120720-22fny.html|archive-date=9 October 2017}} In February 2012, Makhlouf won a legal bid to unfreeze SFr 3 million ($3.3 million) held in bank accounts in Switzerland{{cite news|title=Assad cousin wins case to unfreeze Swiss assets|url=http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/politics/Assad_cousin_wins_case_to_unfreeze_Swiss_assets.html?cid=32098812|access-date=14 July 2012|newspaper=Swiss Info|date=10 February 2012}} after he appealed, saying it predated sanctions. However, his legal bid to enter Switzerland to meet with his lawyers was rejected by Switzerland's supreme court at the end of 2011.{{cite news|last=Jordans|first=Frank|title=Assad cousin denied visa to Switzerland|url=http://www.dailystar.com.lb/2012/Jan-01/158527-assad-cousin-denied-visa-to-switzerland.ashx#axzz21BkGv1Av|access-date=20 July 2012|newspaper=The Daily Star|date=1 January 2012|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120717183234/http://dailystar.com.lb/2012/Jan-01/158527-assad-cousin-denied-visa-to-switzerland.ashx#axzz21BkGv1Av|archive-date=17 July 2012}}

Hafez Makhlouf reportedly bought £31 million in Moscow property through the financing network of Syrian-Russian businessman Mudalal Khoury.{{Cite news |last=Oliphant |first=Roland |date=2019-11-12 |title=Family of Syrian dictator Assad own £31m in Moscow property, report claims |language=en-GB |work=The Telegraph |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/11/12/family-syrian-dictator-assad-31m-moscow-property-report-claims/ |access-date=2022-09-25 |issn=0307-1235}}{{Cite web |last=Orphanides (OCCRP) |first=Sara Farolfi, Isobel Koshiw, Nick Donovan and Mohamed Abo-Elgheit (Global Witness) and Stelios |title=Laundering Misery: The Khouri Network's Global Reach |url=https://www.occrp.org/en/investigations/laundering-misery-the-khouri-networks-global-reach |access-date=2022-09-25 |website=OCCRP |language=en}}

On 18 July 2012, Al Arabiya reported that Makhlouf was killed in a bombing which targeted a meeting of the Central Crisis Management Cell (CCMC) at Syria's National Security headquarters in Damascus.{{cite news|title=Bomb kills Syria defense minister, Assad's brother-in-law and key aides|url=http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/07/18/227035.html|access-date=18 July 2012|newspaper=Al Arabiya|date=18 July 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120719080452/http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/07/18/227035.html|archive-date=19 July 2012}} Other sources, however, indicated that he was only wounded in the attack.{{cite news|last=Jansen|first=Michael|title=Syrian bombing: Key regime figures killed in attack|url=http://m.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2012/0719/1224320381809.html?via=frontpage|access-date=20 July 2012|newspaper=Irish Times|date=19 July 2012}}

In September 2014, multiple sources reported that he had relocated to Belarus with his wife. Earlier in the month, Makhlouf had been removed from his powerful intelligence post in Damascus but pro-government sources said at the time that it was a "routine" move. Joshua Landis, a U.S. expert on Syria, tweeted that Makhlouf had left Syria and that he and his brother Ihab had removed Assad’s photo from their Facebook pages and WhatsApp profiles.{{cite web|url=http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2014/Sep-29/272315-assad-cousin-relocates-to-belorussia.ashx#ixzz3EncRf3uJ|title=Assad cousin relocates to Belorussia|work=The Daily Star Newspaper - Lebanon|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140929150435/http://dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2014/Sep-29/272315-assad-cousin-relocates-to-belorussia.ashx#ixzz3EncRf3uJ|archive-date=2014-09-29}}

• Al-Assad family

{{Reflist}}

{{2011–2012 Syrian uprising}}

{{Heads of Syrian GID}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Makhlouf, Hafez}}

Category:Syrian colonels

Category:1971 births

Category:Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region politicians

Category:Assad family

Category:Politicians from Damascus

Category:Syrian military personnel of the Syrian civil war

Category:Survivors of terrorist attacks

Category:Living people

Category:People named in the Panama Papers

Category:Syrian individuals subject to U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctions

Category:Syrian individuals subject to the European Union sanctions