Asma al-Assad has not filed for divorce from Bashar al-Assad, the Kremlin said

The British-born wife of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is not seeking a divorce, a Kremlin spokesman said.

Turkish media reports have indicated that Asma al-Assad wants to end her marriage and leave Russia, where she and her husband received asylum after a rebel coalition overthrew the former president’s regime and retook control of Damascus.

Asked about these reports in a press conference call, Dmitry Peskov said, “No, it’s not true.”

He also denied reports that Assad is being held in Moscow and that his assets have been frozen.

Russia was an ally of the Assad regime and provided it with military support during the civil war.

But Turkish media reports on Sunday suggested the Assads were living under strict restrictions in the Russian capital, and that the former Syrian first lady had filed for divorce and wanted to return to London.

Mrs Assad is of Syrian and British descent, but the UK foreign secretary has said she will not be allowed to return to Britain.

Speaking in parliament earlier this month, David Lammy said: “I want to make sure that he is an authorized person and that he is not welcome here in the UK.”

He added that he would do “everything in my power” to ensure that no member of the Assad family “finds a place in the UK”.

In a statement written by Bashar al-Assad last week, he said he never intended to flee to Syria, but it was airlifted from a Russian military base at Moscow’s request.

Asma al-Assad, 49, was born in the UK to Syrian parents in 1975 and grew up in Acton, west London.

She moved to Syria in 2000 at the age of 25 and married her husband a few months after taking over from her father as president.

Throughout her 24 years as Syria’s first lady, Ms Assad has been a curious figure in the western media.

A controversial 2011 Vogue profile called her “a rose in the desert” and described her as “a new and very magnetic first lady”. This article has been removed from the Vogue website.

Just a month later, Mrs Assad was quietly criticized as her husband cracked down on pro-democracy campaigners at the start of Syria’s civil war.

This conflict has continued with the lives of about half a million people, her husband is accused of using chemical weapons on people.

In 2016, Ms Assad told Russian state-backed television that she had rejected a deal to give her safe passage out of the war-torn country. to stand with her husband.

He announced that he was there she is being treated for breast cancer in 2018 and said he has fully recovered a year later.

He was diagnosed with leukemia and began treatment for the disease in May this year, the office of then President Assad announced.

The statement said he would “temporarily withdraw” from public discussions.