YOUSOF AKASHEH, a rebel fighter, was astonished to find out that the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria was planning to seize his wife's property. For one thing, she is dead, killed three years ago when a war-plane bombed her apartment block. For another, she never owned property. Such is the arbitrariness of the regime's counter-terrorism court, which has branded tens of thousands of opponents of Mr Assad enemies of the state and sent them to the country's hellish prisons. Those lucky enough to escape arrest are tried in absentia. As punishment, the court routinely seizes their property.
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