President Bashar Assad of Syria said he believes that convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein did not kill himself.

"American billionaire Jeffrey Epstein was killed several weeks ago, they said he had committed suicide in jail. However, he was killed because he knew a lot of vital secrets connected with very important people in the British and American regimes, and possibly in other countries as well," Assad said Thursday, according to Newsweek.

Assad claimed that Epstein was part of a broader conspiracy by Western powers to kill high-profile people who knew lots of secrets, including Osama bin Laden and ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.

Epstein, a 66-year-old finance mogul, died in his Manhattan prison cell in August from what was ruled suicide. He was charged with sexually abusing dozens of underage girls at the time of his death. Baghdadi died after detonating a suicide vest during a U.S. Delta Force raid last month in Syria.

Assad is the head of a brutal dictatorship over Syria that has held onto power despite the country being embroiled in a civil war. The dictator has been backed by the Russian government while the U.S. has backed efforts to defeat ISIS in Syria.