Syria’s fallen dictator Bashar al-Assad reportedly has a personal fund worth over £55 million in a bank account in London.
Banking sources told The i Paper the funds are part of £163 million Assad, his family, and his allies have buried in UK accounts.
Court documents from 2011 say that the dictator had around £40 million in an HSBC bank account in London.
However, because the cash had been frozen under UK sanctions against his regime and Assad could not access it, it has continued to gain interest and is now worth in excess of £55 million ($69.4m).
Assad was sanctioned after he cracked down on protests before the Syrian Civil War in 2011. Once a person or entity is sanctioned, assets are frozen, but the freeze does not involve a change in ownership, nor are they transferred to the Treasury or the UK Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation.
The money held is reportedly a small portion of the wealth amassed by the Assad regime.
The former president is understood to have almost £12.5 billion ($15.77bn) in assets including 200 tonnes of gold, houses worldwide, and a network of businesses spanning the Middle East and beyond.
The UK Government had also frozen Riffat al-Assad, Assad’s uncle’s, assets, including a £26 million ($32.8m) six-storey townhouse in Mayfair.
The publication says there are now calls for UK ministers to use the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 to take control of the funds and hand them back to Syria once a new government is established.
The legislation specifies what constitutes criminal property and allows criminal assets to be recovered through civil means.
Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith told i Paper that "it is high time that the UK Government takes decisive action to support victims of the Syrian conflict and the Assad regime".
Former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said the Government "needs to act swiftly to freeze Assad’s assets in our country and commence the process of the restoration of this wealth to the Syrian people".
Razan Rashidi, executive director of international human rights group , also demanded that ministers return the cash.
"The millions in UK banks belongs to the Syrian people and has been hoarded at the cost to so many lives," Rashidi said.
"So many families are living in painful uncertainty, waiting for information about their missing loved ones who have been detained for years. For their sake, justice must be done. The funds are urgently needed to meet the dire humanitarian needs in Syria and should be spent there."
A spokeswoman for the campaign group , which seeks financial compensation for the Syrian people, said: "Funds collected by States for violations in Syria rightfully belong to Syrian victims who lack alternative avenues to recover; for the UK Government to retain the proceeds would be to indirectly profit from violations in Syria."
There is currently no legal framework to direct these funds to Syrian victims.