Former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad was reportedly hospitalized in Russia after being poisoned, according to a Thursday report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The watchdog claims Assad — a longtime ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin — was rushed to a private hospital near Moscow on September 20 in critical condition. He was treated in intensive care before being released nine days later.

The report says the exiled leader was poisoned while staying in a heavily guarded villa near the Russian capital, where his movements remain restricted but visitors are frequently seen coming and going.

“Whether the poisoning was a result of confusion or more, no one knows,” the group’s report states. “When Bashar al-Assad was admitted to the hospital, he was admitted in an emergency room and in critical condition in intensive care in a private hospital in or near the Moscow suburbs.”

“Only the party that carried out the operation knows whether it was to kill Bashar al-Assad or to embarrass the Russian government,” it added.

Sources cited by the Observatory say the Kremlin had no role in the poisoning, suggesting instead that it “may have been intended to implicate the Russian government,” and to demonstrate “that President Putin is incapable of protecting him.”

Moscow has not commented publicly on the claims.

Assad was ousted from power in December after the Islamist rebel faction Hayat Tahrir al-Sham seized control of Damascus. Despite pledging that Russian reinforcements were on the way, Assad fled Syria within a day — escaping to Moscow with his wife and three children.