Sources opposed to the Syrian government confirmed to “Al-Araby Al-Jadeed” the death of Abdul Halim Khaddam, the former Vice President of Syria and one of the prominent figures in modern Syrian politics, in a hospital in the French capital, Paris, at the age of 88.
Brigadier General Mohammed Haj Ali, a defector from the Syrian regime, told “Al-Araby Al-Jadeed” that “Khaddam passed away naturally at his home at 6 a.m. Paris time.”
Khaddam held several positions in Syria, the latest being Vice President, before defecting from the regime in 2005 after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
He defected from the Syrian regime in December 2005, after his relationship with the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad deteriorated. He then settled in Paris.
After seeking refuge in Paris, he repeatedly stated in press statements that he was firmly convinced that Bashar al-Assad had ordered the Syrian intelligence to assassinate Rafik Hariri in February 2005.
In exile in 2006, Khaddam founded the “National Salvation Front,” which includes Syrian opposition figures. In August 2008, the first military criminal court in Damascus issued 13 sentences in absentia against Khaddam, the harshest being life imprisonment with hard labor, on various charges, including “criminal defamation of the Syrian leadership, providing false testimony to the international investigation committee into Hariri’s murder, and writings and speeches not approved by the Syrian government.”