The Commission of Syrian Lawyers stressed that attempts by the Assad regime to seize the property of political opponents is null and void as its being carried out outside the law.
According to the memo, which was published on social media on Wednesday, the Assad regime’s Minister of Finance issued a decision to confiscate the movable and immovable property belonging to dozens of citizens from the Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta. It noted that the Assad regime described those opponents as “terrorists” in response to their involvement in the Syrian revolution.
The memo stressed that the decision was illegal and invalid as well as violates the “Syrian constitutions”, international humanitarian law, and international treaties and conventions. It added that the decision contravenes all legal procedures adopted in the courts of law all around the world.
The Commission emphasized that the decision violated the powers of the judiciary and consequently Article 3, Paragraph D of the Geneva Convention of 1949 which prohibits “the passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.”
The memo indicated that the decision affects the property of Syrians opposed to the Assad regime, describing it as a “collective punishment” for exercising their political and civil rights and depriving them of the right to complain or object to the arbitrary, illegal acts of the security agencies.
The Commission called on the United Nations, the UN Security Council and international organizations to urgently intervene to put an end to these grave violations against the Syrian people and the illegal seizure of their property.
Moreover, the Commission noted that all decisions, laws, decrees and procedures that pave the way for the seizure of Syrians’ property are null and void and constitute a “systematic crime.”
The Commission pointed to the need to hold the bodies and individuals involved in the making of these unjust decisions the legal and financial consequences that will result from their actions aimed at stealing the property of Syrian civilians. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
