Asma al-Assad, ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's wife, has filed for divorce and expressed her desire to return to the UK.

The couple is currently staying in Russia where they are residing in exile after escaping from Syria.

Asma applied to the Russian court and requested special permission to leave Moscow, reported The Jerusalem Post.

According to reports, Russian authorities are currently evaluating her application.

Asma is a British-Syrian national.

She was born and raised in London to Syrian parents.

Asma, who worked as an investment banker, completed her education in London.

Asma moved to Syria full-time in 2000 and married Assad around the time he succeeded his father as president, reported BBC.

Dr Nesrin Alrefaai, a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), told BBC News that Asma "holds a British passport, so could return to the UK" instead of remaining in Russia.

Assad took charge of the country in 2000.

His father Hafez ruled the country for three decades before him.

Syria has been plunged into civil war and uncertainty since 2011.

Recently, he escaped to Russia after radicals captured several cities including Damascus.

In a landmark mission to Syria, the UN probe into the most serious rights violations committed in the country since 2011 has called on caretaker authorities to take immediate measures to protect mass grave sites and preserve critical evidence.

A team from the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (CoI) on Syria visited former prisons and detention centres, including the notorious Sednaya and the Military Intelligence Branch 235 prisons.

It is the first time the team has been able to access Syria, as the former regime denied all previous requests to gather evidence.

The team was dismayed to see that much evidence and documentation had been damaged, taken or destroyed – information which in some cases could have helped families trace disappeared loved ones.

“Utmost care must be taken to protect mass grave sites and to safeguard all documents and evidence across Syria,” it said, warning that well-meaning but premature actions by individuals or organizations could hinder long-term forensic efforts.