PARIS (AFP) - Paris prosecutors have charged the uncle of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with corruption, an anti-graft group said on Tuesday (June 28).

Rifaat al-Assad, 78, who was Syria's vice-president in the 1980s, was placed under investigation in April for amassing a fortune of 90 million euros, including a stud farm and luxury apartments, despite being kicked out of Syria "with nothing" 30 years ago.

Sherpa, a Paris-based group that defends victims of corruption, told AFP that Assad was charged on June 9.