BEIRUT (Reuters) - A Syrian court has ordered that Syriatel, owned by prominent businessman Rami Makhlouf, be placed under judicial custody amid a high-profile dispute over arrears, according to a document posted on the court's Facebook page.
Makhlouf, the cousin of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and one of Syria's richest men, had his assets ordered seized over alleged back payments to the country's telecoms regulator which it put at 134 billion pounds, or around $77 million at the current exchange rate on the parallel market.