absentee_property – Syria Report

Since the spring, the Damascus-run Idlib governorate has embarked on an intensive campaign to invest in all vacant lands planted with pistachio trees whose owners have fled to opposition-controlled areas. To achieve this, the governorate continues to survey and identify these vacant lands, regardless of their size.

In 2022, the Idlib governorate established committees to determine the current ownership of vacant agricultural lands. These committees identified lands owned by absentee displaced persons and those forcibly displaced to opposition areas. The governorate periodically organises public auctions to invest in these lands based on directives issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, with the approval of the Prime Minister’s Office.

The Idlib governorate has begun preparing to invest the lands of absentee forcibly displaced persons for the 2024-2025 season. On April 22, it issued Announcement No. 276, calling on owners of pistachio farms to submit documents proving their ownership, in order to exempt their lands from the public auctions. Farmers who can prove ownership may invest in their lands personally, while those who fail to do so will see their lands put up for auction for others to invest in.

The governorate has set the starting price for investing in one hectare of pistachio-planted land at SYP 20,300,000 for the current season’s auctions, which is the price at which auction sessions will commence. The terms and procedures for this season’s auctions remain unchanged from previous seasons. They are based on Ministry of Agriculture Directive No. 289 issued on May 16, 2024, which is itself based on the provisions of Law No. 51 of 2004 concerning the contract system for public entities. Directive No. 289 specifies that the initial deposit required to participate in the auction is SYP 150,000; in the event of winning the auction, a final deposit of 10 percent of the total investment amount must be paid, along with SYP 50,000 for the technical dossier. In all cases, the bidder must present prior security clearance to enter the auction and obtain a financial clearance certificate from the Idlib governorate’s Finance Directorate.

There are around 10,000 hectares of pistachio farmland in regime-controlled areas of Idlib, containing more than 1.6 million trees, according to figures published by the state-run newspaper Tishreen in July 2023.

The main committee for agricultural investment in the regime-run part of Idlib, which includes the governor, the chief of police, the secretary of the ruling Baath Party branch, the head of the Directorate of Agriculture, and the heads of agricultural associations, had decided that July 22, 2024 would be the start date for that year’s pistachio harvest. Beginning on July 24, 2024, the governorate’s General Secretariat began issuing pistachio harvest permits to investors and landowners, either in person or through a special power of attorney duly certified by a notary and accompanied by a civil registration extract for the authorised agent. This harvest permit serves as an authorisation for pistachio picking, allowing the landowner or investor to access their land without being stopped at regime forces’ checkpoints or by patrols in the fields.

The governorate’s General Secretariat announced on its official Facebook page that July 25, would be the final deadline for settling financial obligations, warning that failure to do so would result in the seizure of movable and immovable assets of investors, a travel ban, and the imposition of price differences if the same lands were re-auctioned.

Then, on July 30, the General Secretariat posted another notice on Facebook, requiring investors in pistachio lands for the 2024 season to settle their financial obligations within 48 hours of the announcement, under the threat of unspecified “penalties.” The financial obligations that must be settled include the initial deposit of SYP 150,000, and a final deposit of 10 percent of the total contract value for the land investment and SYP 50,000 for the technical dossier.

The General Secretariat of Idlib later put up what it described as “hidden lands” for investment during the public auction held on August 5. These were lands that had not been included in previous auctions for various reasons, such as being deliberately overlooked by committees due to bribes, being accidentally omitted because the plots were too small, or being commonly owned within other larger plots. Identifying these lands is difficult, which has led to a new group of investors actively seeking them out, hoping to gain an advantage by investing in them at lower prices compared to neighbouring lands. This was highlighted in the Ministry of Agriculture’s Directive No. 433, issued on August 4, 2024.

On August 13, the General Secretariat held a new round of public auctions for pistachio farms that either had no bidders in previous auctions or where the winners failed to pay the financial deposits required to invest in them. According to lists published on the General Secretariat’s Facebook page on August 12, the total area of these lands amounted to 168 hectares.

On August 23, the General Secretariat rejected 50 applications submitted by farmers seeking to prove ownership of their lands or to establish their kinship with absent owners of vacant pistachio-planted lands. If these applications had been approved, the farmers would have been able to personally invest in their lands or participate in auctions reserved for relatives. As a result of the rejection, an additional 153 hectares of pistachio-planted land were reintroduced into the public auctions for special investment by relatives, based on mutual agreements among them.

As the pistachio harvest began, the price per kilo of uncleaned and unprocessed pistachios, known as “Armosh,” ranged between SYP 32,000 and 37,000, while the sorted and boxed pistachios were priced between SYP 85,000 and 100,000. These prices were based on the pistachio market rates in the city of Mork, north of Hama, which is the central market for pistachios in regime-controlled areas of Hama and Idlib.

On October 11, 2023, the Second Criminal Court in Damascus issued a judgment against Palestinian-Syrian Oussama Ahmed Majdalawi, convicting him of the felony of possessing drugs with the intent to use. He was sentenced to three years in prison, fined SYP 500,000 and subjected to civil forfeiture, in accordance with Articles 328 and 329 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Since he remains at large, the court ordered the seizure of his assets and properties.

Mr Majdalawi is not the first to be tried in absentia and have his property seized; thousands of such judgments against fugitives from the law are published in the Official Gazette. What is noteworthy in Majdalawi’s case is that he is not convicted of “terrorism,” possession of smuggled goods with intent to trade, or possession of drugs with intent to traffic, which are the most frequent charges in such cases. Instead, his charge is possession of drugs with the intent to use, which highlights the regime is willing to go to seize properties. The Syrian law, in accordance with the provisions of Article 329, allows the seizure of the property of a person convicted in absentia of any felony of a criminal nature.

A felony is defined as any serious crime designated as such by the Penal Code, carrying a minimum sentence of three years imprisonment. Article 328 of the Criminal Code stipulates that the judgment against a fugitive requires their property to be managed according to the procedures for managing absentee property and not handed over to them or their rightful heirs, such as their children, until the in absentia judgment is overturned. Article 329 involves the procedures for publishing the summary of the judgment and notifying the Land Registry and the General Commission for the Management and Protection of State Properties (GCMPST).

Syrian law does not allow a lawyer to represent a defendant in absentia, whether the charge is a felony or a misdemeanor. The defendant must personally appear before the court and attend all sessions until the judgment is issued, after which a lawyer may accompany them for representation. A defendant is considered a fugitive from the law and is tried and sentenced in absentia under the following circumstances:

If the defendant cannot be apprehended after the referral judge issues a decision to transfer the case to the Criminal Court for an in absentia trial. The referral judge is the higher authority over the investigating judge, handling cases concluded by the investigating judge to decide either to dismiss the case or issue an indictment and refer the defendant to the Criminal Court.
If the defendant is on trial while in custody before the Criminal Court but manages to escape before the judgment is issued.
If the defendant is released by the Criminal Court but then fails to attend subsequent sessions.

In the aforementioned cases, the Criminal Court takes measures against the fugitive as a means of pressuring them to surrender. These measures include stripping them of civil rights such as voting, standing for elections, engaging in real estate transactions, registering civil status events, and obtaining personal documents. Additionally, the court prevents the fugitive from disposing of their property by having the Attorney General send a letter to the Land Registry to place a precautionary seizure mark on their properties.

After the trial concludes and an in absentia judgment is issued for the committed felony, the defendant’s assets and properties remain seized as long as they remain at large. This precautionary seizure does not mean that ownership transfers to the state or that the assets are directly confiscated. Instead, the Sharia court appoints a guardian to manage the defendant’s assets and properties without the right to sell them. The management of the absentee’s assets falls under the jurisdiction of the Sharia judge according to Personal Status Law No. 59 of 1953, which is not within the authority of the Criminal Court, which prosecutes criminal offenses.

The convicted person can reclaim their assets if the in absentia judgment is overturned. This judgment is nullified only after the defendant is acquitted in a retrial following their capture or voluntary surrender. At that point, all judicial procedures issued in absentia, including the asset seizure, are annulled, and the properties are returned to the defendant by the guardian.

However, if the convicted person remains a fugitive, their assets and properties are not seized indefinitely. In this case, the judgment expires after the statute of limitations, as specified in Article 162 of Penal Code No. 148 of 1949.

The statute of limitations is 25 years for crimes of premeditated murder or drug trafficking, which are punishable by death or life imprisonment. For severe felonies punishable by temporary imprisonment, the statute of limitations is double the sentence duration, with a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of 20 years. For instance, if an in absentia judgment imposes a temporary imprisonment of seven years, the statute of limitations would be 14 years.

For less severe criminal cases, the statute of limitations is always 10 years. For example, if the Criminal Court sentences an absent defendant to 3 years in prison for the felony of drug possession with intent to use, based on Article 43 of Drug Law No. 2 of 1993, the statute of limitations in this case would be 10 years.

The statute of limitations is calculated from the date the judgment is issued. However, it can be interrupted if the convicted person is apprehended or if the court takes any judicial action against the convicted person, such as searching their home or issuing a warrant for their arrest. In such cases, the statute of limitations is reset and begins anew.

Once the statute of limitations is complete, the criminal judgment is nullified, the penalty is not enforced, and retrial is not permitted. At this point, the convicted person has the right to request the court to lift the precautionary seizure on their properties in the real estate registry, return their seized funds, and release the guardian, who must then provide an account of their management of the convicted person’s assets and properties.

Furthermore, the seizure of a convicted person’s properties in absentia does not affect the rights of others. If a judgment for seizure is issued on the defendant’s assets, including inherited property where they share ownership with others, the court can impose a precautionary seizure only on the defendant’s share as determined by the inheritance certificate. One of the heirs may file a lawsuit for partition in the Civil Reconciliation Court in their area against the other heirs, including the guardian representing the convicted person in absentia. The guardian then manages the convicted person’s share as part of their duties.

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