Recurring Auctions of Absentees’ Lands in Hama, Precautionary Asset Seizures Against Investors
In May, for the fourth year in a row, the Hama governorate held a series of public auctionsy for lands belonging to absentee pistachio farmers. The auctions, which target farmlands owned by forcibly displaced people, appear to have become an annual occasion.
Similar to previous auctions, on May 8, the Hama governorate announced that it would hold a new round of public auctions between May 15 and 21. According to the announcement, the auctions were held in accordance with Public Contracts Law No. 51 of 2004 which addresses the properties of public entities. The auctions were also based on the Ministry of Agriculture Letter No. 438 which was issued on April 23, 2022. The announcement stipulates that potential investors taking part in the auctions may not include more than one real estate area within one investment application.
On May 12, a central committee, tasked with allocating displaced or absentee farmers’ lands for investment, convened in the presence of the Hama governor, the governorate police chief, and the head of the farmers’ office in the Hama branch of the ruling Baath Party. Among the committee’s most important decisions was to give priority to hopeful pistachio farmland investors who are paternal relatives of the original owner, though only up to the fourth degree. In the previous growing season, only relatives up to the third degree were given priority, though both paternal and maternal relatives were accepted. First-degree relatives are parents; second-degree are siblings; third-degree are aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews; and fourth-degree are cousins.
Initial deposit payments
The Hama governorate set May 21 as the deadline for investors to pay their initial deposits on pistachio farms being offered for the 2022 agricultural season. Applicants for the pistachio farms were required to pay the deposits to the Financial Directorate or to the Central Bank branch in Hama. Unlike previous pistachio farm auctions, which have been held annually since 2019, applicants for this year’s public auctions could invest only in one agricultural season, and their investment periods can not be renewed. The change could indicate that the Hama governorate hopes to raise the cost of investment next year.
Last winter, a group of “spatial technical” committees in Hama tallied the properties of displaced pistachio farmers in preparation for offering them for investment at public auctions. Based on that tally, the Hama governorate issued a list on April 26 that included the lands on offer for the 2022 agricultural season. The list was posted on the governorate’s General Secretariat bulletin board, as well as in the Directorate of Agriculture and associated outreach centres. The governorate gave residents until May 12 to submit any objections to the lists. People who object to their lands being offered for investment must submit documents proving their ownership of the lands, as well as their personal presence within regime-held territory. The resulting objections were submitted to the Hama governorate’s General Secretariat through a single drop-off point.
Precautionary asset seizure
On February 16, the Hama governorate issued a final warning to investors who had failed to pay their financial dues, urging them to visit the General Secretariat and pay before March 3.
In the first move of its kind, the Ministry of Finance imposed a precautionary “administrative seizure” of movable and immovable assets belonging to AbdulKarim Al-Amouri and his wife, a couple in the rural Hama city of Morek. They were targeted for the asset seizure because Al-Amouri failed to pay the value of Investment Contract No. 278 for pistachio farmland in rural Hama. According to the Ministry of Finance, Al-Amouri is now obligated to pay more than SYP 13 million for the investment contract, as well as a late fee and the value of any stamps and interest. The Hama governorate published Al-Amouri’s precautionary asset decision publicly, a move that one local investor told The Syria Report was intended to serve as a warning to other investors.