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4. Bashar al-Assad
This soft-featured yet sharp-eyed boy, born on the 11 September 1965, grew up to become Bashar al-Assad, also known as the President of Syria. Assad was elected to the post in July 2000, a month after his father, who held the position before him. It was his elder brother Bassel who was originally slated to replace his father, however after his death in a car accident Bashar was called in to continue the family’s legacy. Unfortunately, this legacy appears to have been written in blood. Assad is considered to run an authoritarian regime, which is reputed to exploit ethnic and sectarian tensions in the country to remain in power. Various political organisations have called upon Assad to resign from the presidency, since a UN investigation into the Syrian Civil War found evidence which implicated Assad in war crimes and crimes against humanity.
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