Syria's President Ahmad Al Shara has issued a pardon covering kidnappers, drug users and other convicted criminals, in the first such move since the fall of the Assad regime.
Fourteen months after the civil war ended, Syria's legal code is mostly unchanged from the era of former president Bashar Al Assad and his father Hafez, who ruled for a combined 54 years. Syria also remains riddled with violence.
A presidential decree announced late on Wednesday commutes life sentences to a 20-year maximum, and pardons kidnappers as long as they release their hostages. It pardons drug users but upholds punishments for drug dealers. The perpetrators of minor offences are also pardoned.
The Justice Ministry was quick to point out that the pardon is aimed at addressing injustices under the Assad regime and that “dangerous crimes and gross transgressions” are excluded.
The new state is yet to set in motion a process to address mass killings committed by the former regime and its loyalists during the 2011 to 2024 war.
Critics say the state has also not sufficiently addressed violence against minorities during government offensives to control the coast and parts of southern Syria last year.
The former regime was overthrown by Mr Al Shara, a former Al Qaeda operative, who has moderated his rhetoric and is seeking foreign investment for reconstruction.
The pardon also aims to give another chance to convicts incarcerated for “normal crimes” and ease jail overcrowding, the statement said.
A veteran lawyer, who declined to be named due to the delicacy of the issue, described the legal language of the decree as odd. But he said its objective “makes sense”, adding that the previous regime used the general criminal code, particularly the sections on crimes against the state and national cohesion, to convict thousands on political grounds.
The general criminal code, along with most other laws under the previous regime, remain valid. A process to choose a post-Assad legislature, initiated by Mr Al Shara last year, has not been completed and this has delayed legal reforms. Mr Al Shara has promised a transition to pluralism over the next four years.
In May 2025, Mr Al Shara appointed a body tasked with upgrading the legal system to deal with the rights abuses committed under Assad family rule. However, a transitional justice law it has prepared is awaiting formulation of the new legislator to be enacted.
