Ousted Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s wife Asma al-Assad is severely ill with leukaemia and has been isolated by doctors who have given her a “50/50” chance of survival.
The British wife of Bashar al-Assad is being kept away from others to prevent infection and cannot be in the same room as anyone else.
Her father, Fawaz Akhras, has been caring for his daughter in Moscow and was described as “heartbroken” by sources in direct contact with her family, The Telegraph reported.
Assad and his wife sought asylum in Moscow after his brutal regime lost its grip on power after 13 years of ruinous civil war.
Syria’s presidency announced in May this year that the then-first lady had been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia, an aggressive cancer of the bone marrow and the blood.
She had also been previously treated for breast cancer and in August 2019 announced that she was “completely” free of the disease after a year of treatment.
Her leukaemia is believed to have reappeared after a period of remission.
Asma Assad, a 49-year-old dual Syrian-British national, is thought to have flown to Moscow for treatment sometime before the Kremlin persuaded her husband to flee in the face of lightning rebel advances.
Her father, a respected Harley Street cardiologist, has been looking after her for much of the past six months, firstly in the United Arab Emirates and later in Moscow.
bd-pratidin/GR
