Syria: Penal Code Amendments End the Spaces Left for Freedom of Opinion and Expression
The full statement available below ..
Recent amendments of Syrian local legislations and laws grant the government extra means to prosecute criticizers and unprecedently squeeze spaces of freedoms of opinion and expression
On March 28, 2022, the Syrian president, Bashar Al Assad, issued legislative decree No. 15 of 2022 stipulating new amendments to articles of the Syrian Penal Code issued with the legislative decree no 148 of 1949 and its following amendments.
Although amendments usually aim to explain and simplify, some of the recent amendments by the government further obscured some of the legal terms that were already ambiguous and whose purpose was already difficult to define by specialists and lawyers, in addition to increasing fines accompanied with many other penalties.
The new amendments created brand new charges that never existed in any of the Syrian legislations, which indicates a deliberate intention by the Syrian authorities to expand the scope of groups to be prosecuted under those new legislations, especially citizens with different opinions or those opposing to the narrative of the Syrian Government.
