Enab Baladi – Besan Khalaf
“I returned to Damascus to find myself a non-citizen,” said Ayman Darwish, expressing his shock upon discovering that he had been stripped of his civil rights following his arrest in 2014.
Darwish, who returned from Idlib to Damascus to obtain a passport, found out that he was banned from traveling and working due to his deprivation of civil rights.
At the Immigration and Passport Department branch in the al-Marjeh area of Damascus, Ghassan Muslim stands waiting for his turn to review his immigration status in order to lift his travel ban.
Muslim is also deprived of his civil rights, after being arrested by the regime in 2015 due to his activism in the Syrian revolution, and then had to seek asylum in Austria after the arbitrary arrest.
Upon his return to Syria, he discovered that he was banned from traveling and from exercising his civil rights in Syria.
Civil rights deprivation in Syrian law may be a primary criminal penalty imposed on those convicted of political crimes, with a minimum of three years and a maximum of fifteen years; this penalty does not expire due to the statute of limitations, unlike other penalties in the law.
Immigration Department lifts travel bans… but
Walid Orabi, the director of the Immigration and Passport Office in Damascus, revealed to Enab Baladi that the office received instructions from the Ministry of Interior regarding the travel ban procedures listed on the security check.
Orabi explained that the Immigration Department has lifted over 50% of the travel bans placed on more than eight million Syrians, emphasizing that the department is handling this matter “automatically.”
He pointed out during his conversation with Enab Baladi that the issue that continues to affect those who joined the revolution is that they are wanted criminally and judicially.
The Syrian regime intentionally attaches criminal and judicial charges to detainees when facing pressure from the international community to release detainees for political reasons, causing the political charges to disappear while the detainee remains judicially pursued, according to Orabi.
According to Orabi, the criminal security apparatus is still in the process of being reactivated, and the judiciary needs time to operate effectively to address the situations of these individuals.
The Immigration Department and the Ministry of Interior cannot remove all individuals wanted for criminal or judicial reasons from the security check to guarantee their rights, due to ongoing cases of murder and theft related to the rights of individuals, according to Orabi.
Syrian identification documents, passport, national ID, and clearance certificate, 23 April (Enab Baladi/Besan Khalaf)
Penalty due to political activity
Lawyer Jihad Ibrahim stated to Enab Baladi that when the penalty of deprivation of civil rights is based on political activity, it should be annulled once the regime falls, following an appeal by the convicted individual, since it does not expire over time. The convicted person must approach the judiciary to challenge the decision.
In turn, judicial authorities can grant amnesty, which leads to the restoration of civil rights to the affected individual.
To avoid confusion between those who faced legal penalties due to criminal offenses and those targeted by the former regime due to their political affiliation, it is essential to establish independent committees or specialized courts composed of neutral judges to address the amnesty decisions.
In cases of individuals stripped of their civil rights due to their political positions or opposition to the former regime, the legal mechanism following amnesty should include provisions for compensation and restoration of rights for them, according to Ibrahim.
Deprivation of civil rights and travel bans
A travel ban is a legal measure that may be imposed on individuals in specific cases, such as criminal charges or security decisions. This ban can be lifted or annulled through a review by the Immigration Department, but the Syrian regime intentionally imposed the penalty of deprivation of civil rights.
The travel ban penalty in Syrian law is neither a primary nor a secondary penalty like the deprivation of civil rights, but the previous regime intentionally imposed arbitrary penalties on detainees for political reasons upon their release.
Why have cases not been dropped despite Assad’s fall?
According to lawyer Jihad Ibrahim, the continued existence of travel bans and the lack of attention to the status of those who have been stripped of their civil rights due to arbitrary arrests may result from several political and legal factors.
The sudden fall of the regime disrupted state institutions, including the judiciary, which has not yet operated effectively. Even after the regime’s collapse, many legal cases remain unchanged unless the individual affected discovers their deprivation of rights and approaches the judiciary, according to Ibrahim.
Ibrahim said that the penalties of travel bans and deprivation of civil rights are remnants of the political and security heritage of the former regime, and it may take a long time to revoke these penalties due to the absence of a legal authority and a judiciary that requires restructuring.
Can judiciary deliver justice to those deprived of civil rights? Enab Baladi.
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