BEIRUT — Rifaat al-Assad, an uncle of the ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad charged in Switzerland with war crimes over the bloody suppression of a revolt in 1982, has flown from Beirut to Dubai in recent days, two Lebanese security officials told Reuters on Friday, while Associated Press reported that the wife and daughter of Rifaat's son were arrested Friday at the Beirut airport, as they attempted to fly out with allegedly forged passports.

Citing five Lebanese officials familiar with the case, AP found that Rasha Khazem, the wife of Duraid Assad — the son of Rifaat, former vice president and younger brother of Hafez al-Assad — and their daughter, Shams, were smuggled illegally into Lebanon and were trying to fly to Egypt when they were arrested. Rifaat had flown out the day before on his real passport and was not stopped, the officials said. His wife and daughter were being detained by Lebanese General Security.

The officials who spoke to Reuters said that "many members" of the Assad family had traveled to Dubai from Beirut and others had stayed in Lebanon since the family was overthrown on Dec. 8. The UAE foreign ministry did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. The Lebanese officials said they did not know if Rifaat or the other Assad family members intended to stay in Dubai or travel elsewhere.

Lebanese authorities had not received Interpol requests to arrest them, including Rifaat, the officials said, though Swiss federal prosecutors in March indicted Rifaat on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for allegedly ordering murder and torture during the 1982 Hama massacre.

Rifaat, now in his late 80s, was major general in the Syrian army at the time and led the elite forces that crushed a 1982 Muslim Brotherhood uprising in the city of Hama, killing more than 10,000 people. In 2022, the independent Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) monitoring group alleged that between 30,000 to 40,000 civilians had been killed in Hama.

Switzerland's Attorney General's Office has referred Rifaat for trial on the charges under the principle that all countries have jurisdiction over such crimes. Rifaat has denied responsibility.

This month, Swiss judicial authorities said they had suggested the trial could be shelved due to his ill health.

The 1982 Hama massacre is often described as the model for Bashar al-Assad's later crackdown on the rebellion that began in 2011 and toppled him this month. When rebels seized Hama on Dec. 6, their leader Ahmed al-Sharaa referred to Rifaat's massacre there, saying they would "cleanse that wound that has persisted in Syria for 40 years."

Rifat helped his older brother Hafez seize power in a coup in 1970, and served as a vice president before unsuccessfully challenging his brother for power and going into exile.

He has lived in Switzerland, Spain and France, where a court found him guilty in 2020 of acquiring millions of euros worth of property using funds diverted from the Syrian state. In 2021 he returned to Syria.

Earlier this month, Lebanese Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said top Assad advisor Bouthaina Shaaban had flown out of Beirut after entering Lebanon legally. In an interview with Al Arabiya, Mawlawi said other Syrian officials had entered Lebanon illegally and were being pursued.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Monday Lebanon would cooperate with an Interpol request to arrest former Syrian intelligence officer Jamil Hassan, accused by U.S. authorities of war crimes under Assad.

Writing by Tom Perry Additional reporting by Yousef Saba in Dubai Editing by Peter Graff.