Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
Damascus, (SANA) Head of the First Military Court in Damascus Col. Yazan al-Homsi said that the Legislative Decree No 22 for 2014 issued by President Bashar al-Assad, which grants a general amnesty for crimes committed before June 9, 2014, is comprehensive as it includes amnesty for punishment of crimes and misdemeanors and grants convicts the full enjoyment of civil rights after serving their sentence.
The amnesty commutes sentences with more lenient ones, including commuting the death sentence to life penal labor, life penal labor to 20 years of penal labor, and life in prison to 20 years in prison.
The amnesty also commutes the entire duration of the sentence for convicts with incurable terminal illness, convicts who are 70 or above, and for convicts of several crimes and misdemeanors, including abduction if the abductor frees the victim safely without taking ransom or delivers the victim to the authorities within a month of issuing this decree.
In an interview with the Syrian Satellite Channel, Col. Al-Homsi pointed out that the decree came as a proactive and preventive step before committing crimes, which indicates a thorough understanding of the reality of events taking place in Syria with the aim of preserving the Syrian citizen and the infrastructure through giving criminals a chance to reconsider their behaviors and turn themselves in to be included in the amnesty.
The amnesty also gives a chance to those carrying unlicensed weapons, granting them two-month deadline for handing their weapons over.
R. Milhem / H. Zain
