In March, the Ministry of Finance issued precautionary seizure orders on the properties of dozens of individuals from Zakia, a town in the Rural Damascus governorate. These orders appear to be aimed at punishing entire families, in response to armed confrontations that occurred in August 2023 between some family members and local armed groups affiliated with the Fourth Division, the regime’s most influential force.

Zakia, part of the Kisweh, a Damascus suburb located south of the capital, borders the governorates of Daraa and Quneitra. Before 2011, the town had a population of around 20,000. Since the 1990s, many of its youth have migrated to Lebanon to work in construction. Zakia is known for its Shamsin and Tuffaha bakeries, which have branches in Aleppo and Damascus as well as in Lebanon. Due to close kinship ties and intermarriage in the region, residents of Zakia also own properties in neighbouring villages and towns such as Shaqhab, Ayn Al-Sawda, Ayn Al-Bayda, Deir Khabiya, and Manshiyat Khan Al-Sheeh. They also own properties, although to a lesser extent, in Kanaker, Sasa, Mazraat Al-Nafoor and Hawsh Al-Nafoor.

From 2012 to 2016, Zakia was under the control of the armed opposition, primarily by the Liwaa Al-Adiyat. A reconciliation agreement with the regime included the surrender of the opposition’s arms, the settlement of their statuses, and the forced displacement of those who rejected the agreement, without regime forces entering the town. Dozens of opposition fighters who refused forced displacement remained in the town. This gave the reconciliation in the area a unique character, which continued to result in tensions with regime forces that infiltrated the town by forming local militias loyal to them. Currently, Zakia’s population is approximately 40,000, including displaced persons from nearby areas where the regime restricts the return of residents, such as Darayya.

The precautionary seizure orders were assigned numbers 449 and 558. According to their annotations, these orders are based on the Law of Judicial Police Authority, issued under Legislative Decree No. 63 of 2012, Decree No. 208 of 2021 forming Hussein Arnous’ government, and Decree No. 1684 of 1977 which regulates the operations and structure of the Ministry of Finance. The annotations also mention a decision, numbered 573, issued on March 21, 2023, which delegates powers without specifying the issuing authority or the nature of these powers.

These precautionary seizure orders also reference two communications from the General Intelligence Directorate “State Security”; the first, numbered 2331 dated February 13, 2024, and the second, numbered 2943 dated February 25, 2024, both directed to Branch 285 of the General Intelligence Directorate headquartered in the security zone in the Kafr Sousseh neighbourhood of Damascus.

Under Law No. 63 of 2012, judicial police authorities can formally request the Minister of Finance to take precautionary measures on the properties of the accused during investigations of crimes against internal or external state security, and offences listed in the Anti-Terrorism Law No. 19 of 2012. This law also grants the Public Prosecutor and the investigating judge the right to impose such precautionary measures during the prosecution of the case, including travel bans, until a final judicial verdict is issued.

The seizure orders concluded with a statement indicating that the precautionary seizure of these properties was due to the individuals’ involvement in “ongoing events in the country.”

According to a correspondent for The Syria Report, these precautionary seizure orders affected dozens of former opponents accused of participating in armed clashes with local militias loyal to the regime, as well as their wives, children, and family members. Local estimates suggest these individuals own tens of hectares of agricultural land and about 200 traditional homes, with most properties officially registered in their names at the real estate authorities.

These lists included first and second-degree relatives of opposition members who participated in an armed clash that erupted in August 2023, with a local armed group led by Muawiya Taama, affiliated with the Fourth Division. First-degree relatives include parents, spouses, and children, while second-degree relatives encompass grandparents, siblings, and grandchildren. The clash was triggered by Mr Taama’s group assassinating a former fighter from the Liwaa Al-Adiyat, which resulted in the deaths of two members from Mr Taama’s group, the burning of the houses, and expulsion of some of its members from the city.

Interestingly, the lists also included names of individuals belonging to local groups under the Fourth Division who did not participate in the armed encounters, as well as some conscripts in mandatory or reserve military service from the town. According to our correspondent, Mr Taama, who remains banned from Zakia to this day, used his influence at the security office of the Fourth Division to include the names of his opponents and also his rivals from other loyalist armed groups on the precautionary seizure lists.

Our correspondent mentioned that a local Fourth Division group leader, whose name was on the list, accidentally discovered a precautionary seizure on one of his properties while trying to sell it and transfer ownership in the real estate registry. Upon discovering this, he approached the Fourth Division office near Sumeria, west of Damascus, where an officer informed him that the precautionary seizure was based on lists provided by Muawiya Taama and Mahmoud AbdulMawla Taama, another group leader of the Fourth Division in Zakia, to the division’s security office, a month after the August 2023 clash.

Notably, after the clash, a settlement was conducted at the end of December 2023 for those wanted in the city, including all participants in the confrontation with the Fourth Division group. This settlement was overseen by Branch 227, which is responsible for the city’s security and is part of the Military Intelligence Directorate, as well as by the Air Force Intelligence branch. This settlement was supposed to eliminate the pursuit of those who participated, but this did not happen.

Our correspondent reported that notable figures from the city contacted the heads of the security agencies responsible for the area, requesting them to lift the precautionary seizures which had been imposed as a form of collective punishment. These requests were made through the local branch of the Military Security Directorate and of the Baath Party, which conveyed the community leaders’ demands for lifting the seizures after the participants in the recent fighting had complied with the settlement. The heads of these agencies promised to work on this issue in the near future.