(Photo : AFP PHOTO / Miguel GUTIERREZ Photo credit should read MIGUEL GUTIERREZ/AFP via Getty Images)
The President of Syria Bashar al-Assad (C) and his wife Asma al-Asad stand next to Venezuelan vice-President Elias Jaua (R) upon arrival at the Maiquetia international airport, in Caracas on June 25, 2010. Bashar al-Assad embarks on a landmark Latin American tour -- which also includes Brazil, Argentina and Cuba-- in search for greater international recognition and to reinforce economic ties with a continent he is visiting for the firs time.
The Syrian government ruled to execute 24 people and sentenced 11 others to lifetime prison sentences with hard labor for allegedly lighting wildfires in 2020 that burned through the country's northwest region.
The news was announced on Thursday by the Syrian justice ministry in a Facebook statement and noted the people convicted were accused not of arson but of terrorism. The government defended its decision by saying that because the actions of the suspects caused the death of other people and extensive damage to infrastructure, private and public property, farmland, and forests.
Syria Executes 24 People
The sentences were imposed on Wednesday and the severity of the punishments shocked even human rights campaigners who have been monitoring the 10-year-long civil war in the country. At the time, President Bashar al-Assad's government bombed Syria's own cities, imposed suffocating sieges on rebellious communities, and made an unknown number of people disappear into its prisons.
"The idea that 24 people were executed in relation to wildfires just smacks of the farce that Bashar al-Assad has made of the justice system over the last decade," said a Syrian researcher with Human Rights Watch, Sara Kayyali, the New York Times reported.
The wildfires killed three people and burned through thousands of acres of forests, and the suspects confessed that they started the fires at several locations in the three governorates. Authorities first arrested the suspects last year, said a statement that was released by the Ministry of Justice.
Along with the 24 executed and 11 sentenced to life in prison with hard labor, five minors were sentenced to jail ranging from 10 to 12 years for being involved in the incidents. The wildfires affected 280 towns, damaged more than 370 homes, and destroyed over 11,000 hectares of forested land. Livestock, agricultural equipment, and infrastructure also suffered significant damages.
Devastating Wildfires
Last October, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made a rare visit to the areas affected by the wildfires. In a statement, the Ministry of Justice said the suspects confessed to planning to set the fires at the end of August 2020 and carried them out from September until October 2020, CNN reported.
The situation comes as the Syrian government is facing criticisms for allegedly stealing $100 million worth of UN donations by manipulating currency exchange rates. With the country's government subject to harsh sanctions for years, it cannot generate revenue through trade with nations like the United States, the UK, and the EU.
The Syrian government has had millions of dollars worth of assets frozen in banks located in Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle East. The situation has forced the Syrian central bank to conduct illegal activities to generate capital, said researchers from the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Every year, the UN transfers millions of dollars worth of aid to Syria for poverty relief but an analysis of 779 public UN contracts revealed that since 2019, the Syrian government made the UN use the official exchange rate between 2,500 and 1,500 Syrian pounds to one U.S. dollar.
However, many traders on the black market used the unofficial and less lucrative rate of 3,500 Syrian pounds to the dollar. The numbers meant that 50% of foreign aid sent to Syria was lost to the government, Business Insider reported.
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