diff --git a/src/borg/patterns.py b/src/borg/patterns.py
index bfbf69712b..abfcee7ed1 100644
--- a/src/borg/patterns.py
+++ b/src/borg/patterns.py
@@ -295,7 +295,6 @@ def _prepare(self, pattern):
         self.regex = re.compile(pattern)
 
     def _match(self, path):
-        assert "\\" not in path
         return self.regex.search(path) is not None