DAMASCUS, Syria (North Press) – The name of the well-known businessman Abu Ali Khedr has returned to the spotlight again, but this time through an official body, which is the Ministry of Education of the Syrian government, which has promoted him in a way that government institutions and agencies do not usually do, to the extent that it used his known name as Abu Ali Khedr, and his real name, Taher Khedr.
In the news, the name “Abu Ali Khedr Taher” was mentioned, and the Tartus Directorate of Education described him as the owner of “national humanitarian charitable initiatives.” It also described the initiative he presented as an educational initiative, and it thanked the governor of Tartus and the owner of the “outstanding charitable activity initiative,” as the directorate put it.
The promotion of this name was read by many as a behavior that suggests raising the formality between a government institution and a man who belongs to the private sector, especially as he is “a controversial figure, and he is one of the war-rich people who were not known, but built a fortune during the war in the country.”
A great controversy was raised by the Ministry of Education when its directorate’s Facebook in Tartus posted news about Abu Ali Khedr donating 20,000 school bags that contain some stationary to all first-grade students.
A retired educational instructor in Damascus, who preferred not to be named, told North Press that the ministry is not allowed to promote a businessman in this way, especially when it is like “money laundering.”
Much of the criticism focused on the donation offered by Khedr, where he gets many times over from his monopoly on a group of commercial activities, especially the mobile phones trade.
Khedr is described as a warlord, because he was one of those who invested in the operations provided by the war, such as providing paid protection for freight trucks in amounts determined by the company, and imposing fees on companies that cross between government-controlled areas and other areas, in addition to illegal smuggling.
The information circulated indicates that Khedr owns a number of companies in various economic branches, such as the Ela company for Tourism and the Citadel Company for Security Guards, which is a security company for protection that he established in 2017 after a decree was issued allowing this in 2015. and his company was carrying out escort and demarcation operations.
He has large stakes in a number of other companies with percentages exceeding 51%.
As for the most prominent project, it is the Emmatel Communications company, which specializes in the sale of mobile phones and everything related to them. It is known that, despite the economic sanctions against it, Syria was the first country to offer the latest versions of “American iPhone” mobiles at very high prices, in addition to the price of the permit or customs, which was recently applied, which makes the trader make profits more than the manufacturer company itself, according to what a number of Syrians have published and in numbers.
Others recalled this man’s career and some of the most prominent points in his life, the most important of which is that the Minister of Interior, Muhammad al-Rahmoun, had previously issued a circular prohibiting dealing with Abu Ali Khedr, but he retracted it less than a month later.
The circular of the Minister of the Interior, came in his full name, Khedr Ali Taher, and stipulated that he should not be dealt with in any way, but the irony is that after two weeks, the Minister al-Rahmoun retracted his decision and issued a decision requesting the annulment of the previous decision.
Abu Ali Khedr was not a well-known name, as his name has appeared in recent years, and he is one of those whose name appears on the list of sanctions imposed by Washington on officials in Syria.