Eurasia Press & News
When Syria’s new president Ahmad Sharaa came to power last December, dismantling the decades-old Assad regime, he promised a clean break from the corruption, nepotism, and privilege that had defined Syrian governance for half a century. Yet within months, that pledge would be tested—not by generals or ministers, but by a member of his own family.
A Brother in the Shadows of Power
Jamal Sharaa, the president’s eldest brother, once moved comfortably through Damascus’s elite business circles. According to multiple reports and sources cited by Reuters, Jamal opened an office in the Syrian capital soon after Ahmad’s rise to power, managing ventures in import and export, tourism, and logistics. From that discreet base, he expanded his network, appearing at high-end venues and driving a black Mercedes-Benz S-Class with tinted windows and unregistered plates—a symbol, to many, of unchecked privilege.
While his younger brothers Hazem and Maher took up senior posts in the transitional government, Jamal’s growing visibility and reputation for flaunting wealth soon drew public attention and internal unease. Critics accused him of exploiting his family name to secure commercial advantages—a charge that carried symbolic weight in a country still reeling from the collapse of a patronage system built by Assad’s cronies.
The Presidential Reprimand
By August, the president had had enough. Ahmad Sharaa reportedly ordered Jamal’s office shut and instructed all government agencies to cease dealings with him. The Ministry of Information confirmed the closure, clarifying that Jamal “was not authorised to operate as an investment or commercial entity” and “held no official position in the state.” The statement stopped short of alleging criminal wrongdoing, but the message was unmistakable: no one, not even the president’s brother, would be shielded from scrutiny.
According to a family relative quoted by Reuters, Ahmad convened a private family meeting shortly after the incident, warning his relatives against “using the family name for personal gain.” It was a gesture aimed as much at the public as at his kin—an assertion that the new presidency would not repeat the dynastic indulgences of the past.
A Wider Crackdown on Privilege
The episode unfolded against a broader campaign by Ahmad Sharaa to curb corruption among his own supporters. In late October, Reuters reported that the president had reprimanded over a hundred loyalists who arrived at a meeting in Idlib driving luxury SUVs. “I didn’t realise government salaries were so generous,” he joked, before ordering several officials to surrender their car keys or face investigations for illicit enrichment. The move signalled both a populist message and a personal code of austerity: no spoils of war, no impunity for the revolution’s victors.
Analysts see Jamal’s exclusion as emblematic of that effort. “It was a test of credibility,” said a Syrian political observer in exile. “If Ahmad allowed his brother to continue, he would have lost the moral authority that separates his government from Assad’s.”
Between Family and State
For Jamal Sharaa, the fall from favour was swift and public. His business network dissolved overnight, his office sealed, and his name quietly excised from official circles. Yet his story reveals the fragile line Syria’s new leadership walks—between revolutionary idealism and the gravitational pull of family, between the rhetoric of reform and the temptations of power.
In a nation still learning to distinguish loyalty from legality, Jamal al-Sharaa has become a cautionary tale: a reminder that even in post-Assad Syria, the struggle against corruption begins not in the ministries—but at home.
