Bashar al Assad: Private photos show the dictator in his underwear

Dictator in underpants

Rebels publish more private photos of Assad

After the dictator’s fall, private photos of Assad emerged. They give a deep insight into his life. Reactions online are divided.

In his underwear in a London kitchen, shirtless on a recumbent bicycle, with a camera in front of a table full of gifts: these are intimate insights into the private life of Bashar al-Assad, one of the most brutal dictators in the Middle East.

The pictures appear to come from an al-Assad family album that Syrian rebels captured when they stormed the deposed despot’s palace. These photos have been circulating on the Internet for a few days. The scenes depicted are in stark contrast to the atrocities he committed – and to his self-portrayal in propaganda.

The private photos show Assad, for example, lovingly holding one of his children in his arms or photographing himself in the mirror while studying medicine in London.

In the photos he looks like a completely normal person. And yet they show the same person who ordered the use of poison gas on his own population. The person happily bathing a newborn in the photos is the same person who tortured tens of thousands of people in Syria’s prisons and is responsible for the deaths of countless people.

Assad’s photos sparked mixed reactions on social media. While some people make fun of him, others only see Assad as a loving family man and cannot imagine that this person could be as cruel as he is portrayed. Several users are even demanding that the rebels return the photo albums to Assad.