On June 23, the Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (AANES) amended the Anti-Terrorism Law No. 7 of 2021, without providing justifications for conducting these amendments. Even after the new amendments, the law remains similar to the Syrian regime’s Anti-Terrorism Law No. 19 of 2012, which threatens housing, land, and property rights.

Law No. 7 of 2021 criminalises and punishes anyone who conspires to commit a terrorist act, establishes or joins a terrorist organisation, funds it, or possesses, manufactures, or transports weapons and explosives with the intent to commit a terrorist act, or promotes such acts. Besides imprisonment and fines, the law grants the public prosecution and the court the authority to freeze the movable and immovable assets of anyone who commits these crimes, provided there is sufficient evidence, to protect the rights of the AANES and the victims.

The new amendments to Law No. 7 of 2021 maintain the penalty of freezing the assets of those accused of terrorism but omit its definition without providing an alternative. Originally,  Law No. 7 defined the freezing of assets as prohibiting the disposition of movable and immovable assets, including preventing their transfer, conversion, or change in form for a certain period, or during investigation and trial stages. This definition was verbatim from the Syrian regime’s Anti-Terrorism Law No. 19 of 2012.

Law No. 7 of 2021 had granted the public prosecutor discretionary power to freeze the movable and immovable assets of those accused of terrorism if there was sufficient evidence. The purpose of freezing assets is to prevent the accused from smuggling the assets and ensure the rights of the victims and the AANES. Under the new amendments to Law No. 7 of 2021, grants, in addition to the prosecutor, the governing body of the People’s Defence Court the right to freeze the assets of those accused of terrorism. This aims to address cases where the public prosecutor refrains from freezing the assets.

The Governing Body of the People’s Defence Court is the judicial body that tries defendants appearing before it. The People’s Defence Court is specialised in handling terrorism-related crimes and those threatening the security and interests of the AANES, according to the Social Justice Charter issued in 2019. This Charter acts as a judiciary law, outlining the types, levels, and jurisdictions of courts, as well as the appointment, rights, dismissal, and removal of judges.

The People’s Defence Court is an exceptional court, which contradicts the AANES’ Social Contract that prohibits the establishment of exceptional courts. This court does not allow defendants to have legal representation by a lawyer, nor does it allow defendants to know the charges against them, thus it does not adhere to the criminal procedure law of ordinary courts in the AANES, Law No. 8 of 2020. Therefore, the court can freeze and seize the assets of defendants during their trials in absentia, without retrial upon their capture. This exceptional status enables the People’s Defence Courts to potentially violate defendants’ rights, including property rights, through asset freezing and seizure based on trials lacking fair trial guarantees.

This bears a significant resemblance to the Anti-Terrorism Court Law No. 22 of 2012, effective in regime-controlled areas, which states that the Anti-Terrorism Court is primarily responsible for hearing terrorism cases. This court has extensive exceptional powers to disregard legal procedures and fair trial guarantees; it can try defendants in absentia, impose the harshest penalties, and confiscate all their movable and immovable properties. The law does not require retrial upon the defendants’ capture unless they voluntarily surrender.

A notable difference between the terrorism courts of the regime and the AANES is that, Law No.  7 of 2021 grants the People’s Defense Court the discretionary power to decide whether to confiscate the property of a defendant convicted of terrorism or not. This is in contrast to Law No. 19 of 2012, applied in regime-controlled areas, which mandates the Terrorism Court to confiscate the property of a convicted defendant.