Inside the lair of Assad’s 'drug lord' brother
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 20 December 2024
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Maher al-Assad is the youngest sibling of the deposed Syrian dictator. He’s also known as the ‘enforcer’, renowned for his brutal crackdowns on protesters, and his role in Syria’s murky drugs empire. Reporter Oliver Marsden visits his abandoned house on the outskirts of Damascus and uncovers a strange lair, complete with an underground funicular, an escape tunnel, and a Jennifer Lopez DVD.
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Host: Manveen Rana.
Producer: Emily Webb.
Guest: Oliver Marsden, foreign correspondent, The Times and The Sunday Times.
Clips: Sky News, France 24, 72 Films.
Photo: Getty Images.
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| 0:36.2 | on Monskloobin, the spy who gave London its Christmas tree. |
| 0:40.7 | If you stand in London's Trapalga Square at Christmas, you'll see a towering, sparkling tree. |
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| 1:01.9 | From the Times and the Sunday Times, this is the story. |
| 1:08.7 | I'm Manvien Rana. |
| 1:17.8 | Thank you. This is the story. I'm Manvina. I'm Manvina. Since the Assad regime finally fell, Syrians have been celebrating their freedom, |
| 1:24.6 | and with the ruling family having fled, they've also been uncovering the secret |
| 1:29.3 | world of the Assads in their luxury homes. At times, it can feel like the brutal dictator's version |
| 1:38.2 | of through the keyhole. You'd go down through the house, across into his garage, |
| 1:50.0 | and then in the back of the garage there was a secret door, |
| 1:52.9 | which had a flight of stairs descending into darkness. |
| 2:00.3 | That's our man on the ground, Oliver Marsden, |
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