President of the Syrian Regime, Bashar Al Assad, issued the legislative decree No.7 of 2022, which consists of three articles stating the following:

Article One: “A general amnesty is granted for terrorist crimes committed by Syrians, except for those that led to the death of a human being as stipulated in the Anti-Terrorism Law No.19 of 2012, and the Penal Code promulgated by Legislative Decree No.148 of 1949 and its amendments.”

Article Two: “This amnesty law shall not affect the personal right lawsuits; the affected person may file his/her case before the competent civil court”.

Article Three: “This Legislative Decree shall be published in the Formal Newspaper and shall be effective as of the day of its issuance”.

In order to discuss this Legislative Decree from a legal point of view and refute it, we must refer to the following points:

First: The dominance of the President of the Syrian Regime, which is represented in issuing an amnesty decree, is a violation of the constitution that aims to raise the presidents’ popularity to cover up the crimes committed by his security services.

The basic principle on which the general amnesty decree is based, is the suspension of the legislative decree text that provides for the punishment imposed by a legal text.Moreover, Article 75 of the Syrian Constitution of 2012 along with Article 71 of the Syrian Constitution of 1973 stipulate the following “People’s Assembly has the following authorities:
1- issuing laws
7- Issuing general amnesty”, and Article108 of the Syrian Constitution of 2012 along with Article 105 of the Syrian Constitution of 1973 stipulate the following “the president has the right to issue a special amnesty and rehabilitate law”.

A Legal Statement Legislative Decree No.7 of 2022