Syrian Court Puts Mobile Operator Syriatel Under Judicial Custody

A Syrian court has placed mobile network provider Syriatel under judicial custody, according to a document posted on the court’s Facebook page. The company, owned by prominent businessman Rami Makhlouf, a cousin of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Syria’s richest men, has been embroiled in a high-profile dispute over arrears. Makhlouf’s assets were ordered seized over alleged back payments, amounting to 134 billion Syrian pounds (around $77 million), to Syria’s telecom regulator. Makhlouf, 50, has been one of Assad’s biggest supporters, bankrolling the Syrian government since the eruption of the country’s civil war more than nine years ago. In addition to Syriatel, the country’s largest mobile phone company, Makhlouf owns retail, banking and real estate companies. He has called the asset seizure illegal and an attempt by the government to take the company from him. The decision to place Syriatel under judicial custody is to “guarantee the rights of the public treasury and the rights of the shareholders in the company” the administrative court wrote on Facebook. Makhlouf has addressed the dispute in three video messages in which he has appealed to Assad himself to help save his firm. In his last appearance, Makhlouf said he had been told to quit as the head of Syriatel.