Judge José de la Mata has also moved to block 16 bank accounts held by individuals suspected of being connected to Rifaat al-Assad and deposit accounts belonging to 76 companies.
Investigators believe that more than £250 million in Syrian public funds have been siphoned into these accounts. The judge ordered the seizure of more than 500 properties worth £590m owned by Assad and his relatives, a court statement said.
Real estate belonging to Rifaat al-Assad and his relatives in Spain includes parking spaces in garages to villas, luxury apartments and country estates, virtually all in Marbella and nearby Puerto Banús, a glitzy marina development.
Among the property identified as belonging to the al-Assad family is an estate called “La Máquina” (The Machine), a spread of more than 3,300 hectares just outside Marbella that is believed to be worth around £50 million.   
No arrests have yet been announced in what Spanish police have dubbed Operation Scar. According to judicial sources cited by the newspaper El Confidencial, besides Rifaat al-Assad, Spanish police are investigating six of his sons, some of his daughters-in-law and two of his four wives.
The youngest brother of Hafez al-Assad, the Syrian dictator who passed power on to Bashar al-Assad, Rifaat was vice president of the country in the 1980s before being forced into exile amid accusations of preparing a coup against his older brother.