Bashar Al-Asad issues a Decree violating the right of Ownership

Bashar Al-Asad issued decree 68 on 16/9/2012, in which he delegates the security apparatus to seize the money & properties of the detainees and the accused, claiming that they are committing crimes which harm the security of the country

This decree was personally issued by Bashar al-Asad, and not with his legislative body “The People’s Council” (the Parliament), during parliament leave in order to justify the crimes being committed by the security apparatus and its shabiha against the money and possessions of citizens.

This decree is proof and leaves no doubt that the reforms Bashar al-Asad claimed to implement last year was simply talk, and in order to allow him to continue in the path of single dictatorship which he inherited from his father without any consideration of the legislative and judicial bodies. This is despite the fact that they are totally under his power.

This decree is unable to hide the looting and stealing of the possessions of citizens being carried out by the apparatus, soldiers and shabiha of Bashar Al-Asad, not to mention the destruction of houses and general buildings. Moreover, the decrees and laws of Bashar Al-Asad will not be successful in hiding all of this in the same way that his father was unable to hide the massacres of 1980 through issuing decree 49.

It is incumbent upon the world, which observes what is happening to the Syrian people whilst Bashar Al-Asad and his regime slaughter them, destroy their homes, and seize their possessions, to implement the conventions of the United Nations which forbid and criminalise these acts. The world must act according to these conventions in order to protect the lives of humans and their possessions, and to put all criminals to trial. So how is it if the president of the regime, his followers, his soldiers and shabiha gangs are the criminals?

Syrian Human Rights Committee
22/10/12