Court Abolished, Rulings Voided
Syria's People's Assembly voted unanimously to abolish the Terrorism Court and annul the effects of its rulings, in a measure that addresses a caseload of more than 90,000 files. The vote came during the third session of the assembly's first extraordinary round.
The law tasks the Supreme Judicial Council with managing the consequences of the court's verdicts, including forming specialized judicial committees to void those rulings and settle the legal effects that flowed from them.
Property Returned Without Fees
At the center of the law is the return of confiscated property. Beneficiaries who recover seized assets are exempted from the fees and taxes normally due on transferring that property back into their names.
The exemption applies to property confiscated under the Terrorism Court, field military courts, and military courts for the period from 15 March 2011 to 8 December 2024. Specialized committees will void the rulings, return confiscated assets, and either preserve pending suits or refer them to the competent court.
Scale of the Confiscations
Documentation cited during the process points to the reach of the system being dismantled. A human-rights monitor recorded at least 10,767 people brought before the court and about 90,560 cases through October 2020, alongside 3,970 property-seizure cases.
The same monitor documented at least 40,602 seizure and confiscation orders between 2012 and 2024, affecting roughly 320,000 citizens. The court itself was established under Law No. 22 of 2012.
From Law to Enforcement
Judicial accountability had already begun: 87 judges were referred for inspection in February 2025, a specialized review committee was formed on 17 April 2025, and Presidential Decree No. 88 of 12 June 2025 dismissed 67 former terrorism-court judges.
With the vote, the file moves from legislative repeal to judicial enforcement. As one legal researcher put it, the law's significance lies "in removing the effects of its rulings, returning property, and exempting owners from fees and taxes."