HTS Commander Seeks to Recover his Seized Property in Lattakia

After the fall of the Assad regime on December 8, 2024, and the entry of the “Deterrence of Aggression” forces affiliated with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) into the city of Lattakia, some people began reclaiming properties previously seized by influential figures within the former regime’s security and military apparatus. This process has been disorganised and in some cases it was revealed that the properties are no longer occupied by those who had forcibly taken them, but rather by new buyers who were unaware of the circumstances surrounding the properties’ seizure.

In Al-Mashrou Al-Sabea (“Project Seven”) area of Lattakia, an armed group from HTS demanded the evacuation of residents from a building, claiming that their purchase agreements for the apartments were invalid. This raised concerns among the residents, who requested direct communication with the group’s military commander. Eventually, a phone call was made with the commander, who was not present in Lattakia at the time. During the call, the commander reportedly stated that the building belonged to him and explained that a leader of the National Defence Forces (NDF) militia loyal to the previous regime had illegally extorted the property.

According to the residents, their purchase contracts for the apartments are not notarised by a public notary, but they had paid the full price for them. The building is located in an informal settlement and is unlicensed. Consequently, sales contracts for such properties are often limited to shares of the land on which the building is constructed.

A lawyer familiar with the case told The Syria Report that the apartments in this building had been sold multiple times using forged contracts. The lawyer explained that the current residents are the last buyers in a chain of transactions, unaware that the contracts in their possession are forged.

According to the lawyer, the original sale contract for the apartments was forged, listing the wife of a NDF leader as the buyer of the property from its absent original owner. The actual owner of the property is now a military commander in HTS, who was displaced from the area at the time the contract was falsified.

The lawyer criticised the buyers for agreeing to purchase apartments with contracts that were not officially registered. He pointed out that the root cause of the issue lies in the forgery of the original sale contract, involving manipulated signatures and seals while the rightful owner was absent.

The wife of the NDF leader sold these apartments to other buyers, who, in turn, resold them to the current residents. The lawyer suggested that the intermediary buyers between the militia leader’s wife and the current residents might be fictitious. The apartment owners have attempted to contact those who sold them the properties but to no avail. These intermediaries have seemingly vanished, leaving uncertainty as to whether they were real people or merely fabricated names.

The property’s rightful owner has told the families that, after their evacuation, the matter will be pursued through the courts. He stated that if the residents have legitimate claims, they should be compensated. They are encouraged to file official complaints in court to reclaim their rights from the last seller involved in formalising each contract.

The legal complication here lies in the fact that these apartment buyers, holding forged contracts, cannot be considered bona fide purchasers. Article 13 of the Land Registry Law stipulates that anyone who acquires a property in good faith, based on registered records in the Land Registry, cannot have that right revoked for any reason. However, this protection only applies to rights listed in the Land Registry – which does not apply to the buyers of the apartments in Al-Mashrou Al-Sabea in Lattakia.