Local media outlets reported that the Assad regime issued a decision to seize the property of dozens of residents of the Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta in response to their participation and activism in the Syrian revolution.
Websites published a copy of the decision to confiscate the movable and immovable property of 137 persons, their wives and children. The majority of those people are from the town of Douma.
Rights activists said the aim of these unjust decisions was to consolidate the systematic demographic change that the Assad regime has been seeking to achieve for several years and to repopulate their areas with loyalists.
Activists pointed out that the list includes the names of former heads of local councils, civil society, media institutions, and FSA leaders.
On August 3, 2018, the Assad regime issued a decision to confiscate the movable and immovable property of many former civil society workers and interim government employees in Dara’a.
The move followed the issuance of Law No. 10 which provides for the creation of new urban zones and plans in the war-ravaged areas.
The Syrian Coalition earlier held workshops to shed light on the effects of Law 10. The discussions focused on protecting civilians’ property in Syria. It stressed the importance of launching a national project that contributes to the protection of civilian property, especially following the massive destruction caused by the regime’s bombing of urban centers and residential areas.
The Coalition pointed to the regime’s exposed strategy of seizing the property of the refugees and forcibly displaced people and granting it to loyalists. It cited reports about the regime’s illegal transfer of property in some areas, which it said amounted to war crimes under international law. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
