Assad's critically ill wife 'barred' from returning to Britain for cancer treatment after passport expired

The critically ill wife of the former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has reportedly been barred from returning to Britain for cancer treatment after her passport expired. Asma al-Assad, 49, will be unable to come back to her native London without her official travel documents amid reports she is severely ill with leukemia and has only a '50-50' chance of survival. Asma al-Assad, 49, will be unable to come back to her native London without her official travel documents amid reports she is severely ill with leukemia and has only a '50-50' chance of survival Asma is currently exiled in Moscow with the toppled dictator, having left behind their lives of luxury in Syria Bashar and Asma Al-Assad are pictured meeting with Vladimir Putin in 2005 This is the house where Ms Assad grew up before she married the dictator and moved to Syria Queen Elizabeth II receives Asma al-Assad and her husband, then Syria's president Bashar Al-Assad, on December 17 2002, at Buckingham Palace, in London on their first visit to Britain Critics believe she orchestrated a secretive labyrinth of committees and policies, run by her henchman, which controlled everything from access to the internet to subsided food rations. Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma walk in a street of Paris on December 10, 2010 Ms Assad, a dual Syrian-British national, is undergoing cancer treatment in Moscow Assad's extended family reportedly purchased at least 18 luxury apartments in the City of Capitals complex, located in Moscow's glittering skyscraper district She has applied to a Russian court for permission to leave Russia for Britain which is being evaluated by the Russian authorities.