Eu Sanctions Syrian Leader Assad's Cousins Over Suspected Drug Trade

LUXEMBOURG, April 25 (Bernama-dpa) -- The EU is accusing family members of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of drug trafficking and has put them on its sanctions list, reported German news agency (dpa). 

EU foreign ministers decided on Monday that the two cousins - Wasim Badia and Samer Kamal al-Assad - should be particularly highlighted.

They are allegedly involved in the production and trade of the stimulant Captagon. A third cousin, Mudar Rifaat al-Assad, was sanctioned without more specific reasons being provided. 

In addition, 22 other Syrians and eight companies are affected by the new punitive measures.

"The trafficking of amphetamine has become a business model run by the regime," says a statement from the EU Council of Ministers. The money is used by the regime's inner circle to maintain its policy of repression against the civilian population. 

International investigators now consider Syria to be one of the world's largest producers of amphetamine tablets.

The eight newly-sanctioned companies include private security firms that functioned as shell companies and supported militias close to the regime. 

But a Russian construction company also ended up on the sanctions list. Stroytransgaz had taken control of Syria's largest phosphate mines and was thus a "beneficiary and supporter of the regime".

In all 322 people and 81 companies in Syria are on the EU sanctions list. Under the punitive measures, assets held in the EU must be frozen and EU entry bans imposed. 

A civil war has been raging in Syria for more than 12 years. Assad's supporters control around two-thirds of the country. According to UN estimates, around 70 per cent of the population need humanitarian aid.

-- BERNAMA-dpa