The Syrian Regime is Using Provisional Seizure of Assets as An Instrument of Collective Punishment

At Least 817 Civilians Have Been Subject to Mass Provisional Seizure Orders by the Syrian Regime in Zakya Town in Rural Damascus Governorate Since the Start of 2024

The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) today released a report entitled, ‘The Syrian Regime is Using Provisional Seizure of Assets as An Instrument of Collective Punishment’, in which the group revealed that at least 817 civilian residents of the town of Zakya in Rural Damascus governorate have been subjected to mass provisional seizure orders by the Syrian regime since the start of 2024.

This report is one in a series of reports released by SNHR examining the administrative decisions issued by the Syrian regime’s official institutions and their major legal consequences, and analyzing how these decisions affect the people concerned. This report’s particular focus is on the orders for the provisional seizure of transferrable and non-transferrable assets that were issued against the residents of Zakya between the start of 2024 and June 2024, with the regime’s Ministry of Finance issuing hundreds of new provisional seizure orders of a kind not seen previously there against the town’s residents during this period.

The 16-page report notes that provisional seizures of transferrable and non-transferable assets have been used by the Syrian regime as one of the most notoriously effective means to generate funds through seizing and subsequently disposing of assets identified in seizure orders. Equally important is the fact that this has been used as an additional form of punishment against most dissidents and their families, subjecting them to even more legal, social, and economic restrictions, oppression and injustice. As shown by the documents on provisional seizure orders issued by the Syrian regime, copies of which are retained in SNHR’s archives, arbitrarily arrested detainees and forcibly disappeared persons in regime detention centers, and the displaced, including internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees, are among the groups most grievously affected by the provisional seizure orders issued by the Syrian regime, with these provisional seizure orders usually subsequently going on to effectively become executive seizures of property.

Since late-2023, the report notes, SNHR began noting that the regime is now using this policy in specific areas that had been outside its control, which were later recaptured and subjected to settlement agreements. In this way, the policy has exhibited more visibly discriminatory characteristics based on security-related and retaliatory considerations, with the resulting procedures lacking any trace of justice or transparency, not to mention blatantly contravening domestic and international laws.

As the report reveals, since the start of 2024, the Syrian regime’s executive arm has been increasing the number of provisional seizure orders issued against the transferrable and non-transferrable assets of Zakya town’s residents, in the form of orders issued by the regime’s Ministry of Finance. These orders are based primarily on Legislative Decree No. 63 of 2012, in addition to the notices and other official documents issued by Branch 285, the Interrogation Branch affiliated with the regime’s General Intelligence Directorate or ‘State Security’ division in Damascus city. In other words, those orders are not being issued by a judicial body, but by regime security authorities as a result of the excessively broad powers given by the regime to its official executive bodies with regard to issuing provisional/administrative seizure orders on assets and properties, mainly to the head of the Ministry of Finance under the pretext of combating money-laundering and terrorism. These powers even allow the seizure of the assets of the wives of wanted individuals, unlike judicial seizure orders, whose powers are limited to the property of the person whose assets are subject to expropriation.

The report reveals that at least 13 mass provisional seizure orders affecting no fewer than 817 civilians were issued by the Syrian regime’s Ministry of Finance in Rural Damascus governorate between January 2024 and June 2024. During this period, February saw the highest number of provisional seizure orders issued by the Syrian regime’s Ministry of Finance, as well the highest number of civilians affected in a single month. These orders included lists of names of individuals forcibly disappeared in regime detention centers, missing persons, individuals who had agreed to settle their security situation with the regime, and others wanted by the regime’s security authorities, including displaced persons and activists.

The report contains a number of graphs, which show that the group in Zakya town targeted most intensively in provisional seizure orders was individuals who had agreed to settlements with the regime-formed military and security committee following the regime’s takeover of the town in January 2017. This shows that the regime is adopting an ongoing policy of persecution of the town’s residents. After this group, the next worst affected category was IDPs or refugees forcibly displaced from the town. The report further reveals that neither the Ministry of Finance or any other official regime official body, has notified those affected by the provisional seizure orders of them in any official capacity. Rather, most of those affected found out about the orders through contacts in the government real estate registry offices and the municipality, while others learned of them only after the documents had been circulated on social media, or simply by accident while doing some paperwork in the Real Estate Registry Directorate in Rural Damascus governorate.

The report reaches a number of conclusions. Most prominently, provisional seizure orders issued by the Ministry of Finance against the residents of Zakya town in Rural Damascus governorate have no judicial grounds, due to being issued based on security authorities’ decisions. This further proves that the regime’s security apparatus controls all aspects of the state institutions which are subjugated to the service of the interests of the security apparatus. Furthermore, the Law on Managing and Investing Transferrable and Non-Transferrable Assets That Were Seized Pursuant to an Unappealable Judicial Ruling is the worst legislation yet introduced in relation to stripping citizens of their property.

The report calls on the UN Security Council and the UN to expedite the process of bringing about a political resolution in Syria in accordance with Geneva Communiqué 1, and UN Security Council resolutions 2118 and 2254, which will help to secure the release of political prisoners, end torture, and end the operations of exceptional security courts. Moreover, the UN Security Council and the UN must condemn the Syrian regime’s hegemony over the three branches of government, and expose its practices of promulgating laws through which it can seize the assets of IDPs, refugees, forcibly disappeared persons, and killed victims who have not been registered as dead.

The report also calls on the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) to give a clear image of the sheer monstrosity of the laws promulgated by the Syrian regime before the Security Council and all the world states. The report also makes a number of additional recommendations.