Syria abolishes al-Assad-era ‘terrorism’ court as Kurdish tensions flare

Discontent is testing President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s ability to unify a country emerging from 14 years of conflict.

Demonstrators shut down the M4 highway near the town of Tal Tamr, Syria, blocking trucks bringing oil from the country's Qamishli and Rmeilan oilfields [Baderkhan Ahmad/AP]

Syria’s parliament ‌has voted to abolish an al-Assad-era “terrorism” court and nullify the ⁠legal effects of ⁠its rulings, in one of the first significant legislative moves by the country’s new assembly .

The vote on Wednesday formalised the abolition of the court, which Syria’s new authorities had already treated as defunct, state-run Al-Ekhbariya TV reported.

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The Counter-Terrorism Court, ⁠established in 2012, was used to prosecute thousands of Syrians for offences deemed “terrorism-related” ⁠under ousted former President Bashar al-Assad.

Wednesday’s vote came during the opening ⁠weeks of the first parliament formed since al-Assad was toppled. The chamber convened for the first time in July .

In June 2025, President Ahmed al-Sharaa issued a decree dismissing 67 judges who had served in what he described at the time as the “abolished ‌Counter-Terrorism Court”.

Syria’s March 2025 constitutional declaration had also called for abolishing the effects of what it described as unjust rulings issued by the court, including returning confiscated property.

The United Nations Human Rights Committee said in 2024 that the 2012 law establishing the court failed to adequately provide key judicial guarantees and raised concerns over arbitrary detention, torture or ill-treatment, and the court’s independence.

The vote is among the assembly’s first major legislative decisions after it ‌spent its initial sessions establishing its internal rules and committees.

The 53-year-long rule of the al-Assad family ended on December 8, 2024, after a lightning 11-day offensive that took Syria and the world by surprise. With it ended a brutal police state, notorious for its use of torture and disappearances .

Kurdish discontent amid government integration deal

Hundreds of oil tanker trucks were stranded in northeastern Syria’s Kurdish region on Wednesday after demonstrators blocked a major highway near the town of Tal Tamr in protest over rising fuel prices.

Discontent has been building in the Kurdish region amid a push to integrate a once-powerful Kurd-led armed force – the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – into Syria’s army and bring them under the control of the central government.

The integration agreement with the SDF, minted in August, has been widely regarded as a victory for al-Sharaa’s government, but discontent is testing the president’s ability to unify a country emerging from 14 years of conflict.

Kurds, who made up about 10 percent of Syria’s population of 23 million before the civil war began in 2011, were long marginalised under the country’s al-Assad dynasty. During the war, they carved out a de facto autonomous zone in the northeast.

When northeast Syria – including its oilfields – was under the SDF’s control, fuel was heavily subsidised. After the central government took control, it removed those subsidies, leading to a price hike.

Syrian Energy Minister Mohammed al-Bashir is scheduled to be questioned in parliament on Thursday over the increase in fuel prices.

On Sunday, the government further hiked petrol prices by about 30 percent and diesel by 40 percent, citing rising global fuel prices due to the US-Israel war on Iran as well as repair work at the Baniyas refinery on the country’s coast.

Demonstrators shut down the M4 highway near the town of Tal Tamr, blocking trucks bringing oil from the Qamishli and Rmeilan oilfields, and announced that they would only reopen the route if the price increases were reversed.

Additionally, students in the cities of Qamishli and Hasakah staged mass protests in recent weeks over a government decree that makes Kurdish an official language of instruction for the first time in Syrian history but only provides for three classes a week in the language. By contrast, Kurds had set up a school system teaching mostly in Kurdish.

With the new post-war government reasserting control over the northeast, Kurdish communities have been anxious about losing the rights they had under self-rule. Al-Sharaa has promised constitutional protection for Kurdish language and political rights.

In January, the integration deal reached between the central government in Damascus and the SDF halted weeks of fighting. While some Kurdish politicians hail the integration as a door for the Kurds to participate in building the new Syria and to demand their rights through the constitution, others consider the step a result of pressure from Turkiye and the United States and potentially harmful for Kurdish interests.

民众的不满情绪正在考验总统艾哈迈德·沙拉能否团结一个刚刚摆脱14年冲突的国家。

示威者封锁了叙利亚塔尔塔姆尔镇附近的M4公路，阻止了从该国卡米什利和鲁迈兰油田运送石油的卡车通行。[巴德尔汗·艾哈迈德/美联社]

叙利亚议会投票废除了阿萨德时代的“恐怖主义”法庭，并取消了该法庭裁决的法律效力。这是该国新议会采取的首批重大立法行动之一。

据叙利亚国家电视台Al-Ekhbariya报道，周三的投票正式废除了该法院，叙利亚新当局此前已将其视为已失效。

列表 1/3：叙利亚战争遗留武器库发生爆炸，造成 14 人死亡

名单中的第二名：库尔德YPJ女战士面临被排除在叙利亚新军队之外的困境

列表 3/3：叙利亚北部一所监狱发生火灾，至少七人死亡

反恐法庭成立于 2012 年，在被推翻的前总统巴沙尔·阿萨德统治时期，曾被用来起诉数千名叙利亚人犯有被认为是“与恐怖主义有关的”罪行。

周三的投票正值阿萨德政权倒台后成立的首届议会成立的最初几周。该议会于7月首次召开会议。

2025 年 6 月，总统艾哈迈德·沙拉发布法令，解雇了 67 名曾在他当时所称的“已被废除的反恐法庭”任职的法官。

叙利亚在 2025 年 3 月的宪法宣言中也呼吁废除其所称的法院作出的不公正裁决的影响，包括归还被没收的财产。

联合国人权事务委员会在 2024 年表示，2012 年设立该法院的法律未能充分提供关键的司法保障，并对任意拘留、酷刑或虐待以及法院的独立性表示关切。

此次投票是该议会在最初几届会议中制定内部规则和委员会之后做出的首批重大立法决定之一。

2024年12月8日，在叙利亚政府军发动的一场为期11天的闪电战后，阿萨德家族长达53年的统治宣告结束，这场突如其来的攻势令叙利亚乃至全世界都措手不及。随之而去的，是一个以酷刑和强迫失踪而臭名昭著的残酷警察国家。

库尔德人对政府一体化协议的不满

周三，由于示威者封锁了塔尔塔姆尔镇附近的一条主要公路，抗议燃油价格上涨，数百辆油罐车滞留在叙利亚东北部的库尔德地区。

在库尔德地区，随着将曾经强大的库尔德人领导的武装力量——叙利亚民主力量（SDF）——并入叙利亚军队并使其处于中央政府控制之下的努力，不满情绪日益高涨。

8 月份与叙利亚民主力量 (SDF) 达成的融合协议被广泛认为是沙拉政府的胜利，但民众的不满正在考验这位总统能否团结一个刚刚摆脱 14 年冲突的国家。

在2011年内战爆发前，库尔德人约占叙利亚2300万人口的10%，长期以来在阿萨德王朝统治下一直处于边缘地位。战争期间，他们在东北部建立了一个事实上的自治区。

叙利亚东北部地区（包括其油田）在叙利亚民主力量（SDF）控制时期，燃油享受大量补贴。中央政府接管政权后，取消了这些补贴，导致油价上涨。

叙利亚能源部长穆罕默德·巴希尔定于周四在议会接受质询，质询内容涉及燃油价格上涨问题。

周日，政府将汽油价格上调约 30%，柴油价格上调 40%，理由是美以对伊朗的战争导致全球燃料价格上涨，以及该国沿海巴尼亚斯炼油厂的维修工作。

示威者封锁了塔尔塔姆尔镇附近的 M4 高速公路，阻止了从卡米什利和鲁迈兰油田运送石油的卡车通行，并宣布只有在油价上涨被取消的情况下才会重新开放这条路线。

此外，卡米什利和哈塞克两市的学生近几周举行了大规模抗议活动，反对政府颁布的一项法令。该法令首次将库尔德语定为叙利亚官方教学语言，但每周仅提供三节库尔德语课。相比之下，库尔德人此前已建立了一套主要以库尔德语授课的学校系统。

随着战后新政府重新控制东北地区，库尔德社群一直担心会失去他们在自治时期享有的权利。沙拉政府承诺将通过宪法保护库尔德语和库尔德政治权利。

今年1月，大马士革中央政府与叙利亚民主力量（SDF）达成的融合协议结束了持续数周的战斗。一些库尔德政治家称赞此次融合为库尔德人参与建设新叙利亚、并通过宪法争取自身权利打开了一扇大门，而另一些人则认为此举是迫于土耳其和美国的压力，并可能损害库尔德人的利益。