The Syrian Opposition Coalition’s (SOC) Secretary-General, Abdelbaset Abdullatif, said that the Assad regime is trying to intimidate Syrians who refuse to perform military service and commit crimes against their fellow Syrians.
Abdullatif was commenting on a video published by the Assad regime’s Ministry of Information showing head of the regime’s branch of military exemption announcing the issuance of Legislative Decree No. 31 of 2020. Abdullatif stressed that the announcement was nothing more than intimidation and a reminder to the hundreds of thousands of Syrians who refused to join the Assad regime forces of the consequences of the failure to pay the fees for paid exemption from military service. The decree stated that the regime will seize the property of the draft dodgers who do not pay the exemption fee, or the property of their family and next of kin.
Abdullatif pointed to the fallacies that revealed the real purpose and motive behind that announcement, adding that the decree stipulates the executive seizure of the property of draft dodger only and the precautionary seizure of the property of his wife and children unless they provide a proof that they did not acquire this property from the husband or father.
He pointed out that the text of this politicized, unconstitutional, and immoral law did not mention the draft dodgers’ families or next of kind, stressing that the explicit purpose of the announcement is to intimidate draft dodgers to pay fees to the cash-strapped regime.
Abdullatif also stressed that the Assad regime is facing a stifling financial and economic crisis after the decline in the Iranian cash flow and the implementation of the Caesar Act. “The Assad regime will not therefore shy away from using any means, even the use of blatant lies, to replenish its coffers with foreign currency as the latest decree stipulated that the exemption fees must be paid exclusively in US dollars or the equivalent in Syrian pound, not vice versa.”
He called on the Syrian people not to fall for the deception of the Assad regime as he stressed that the Syrian people would not fund the killing machine of their fellow people by paying the exemption fees.
Abdullatif concluded his remarks by stressing that the Syrian people would one day get rid of this regime and reclaim their rights. He said that laws are only enacted to serve and protect the people’s rights, not with the aim of extortion and punishing those who refuse to take up arms against their fellow citizens. (Source: SOC’s Media Department)
