President al-Assad Issues Legislative Decree No.37 on Abolishing and
Substituting Article No.548 of the Penal law
Jul 01, 2009
www.sana.sy/eng/21/2009/07/01/233717.htm

Damascus, (SANA - Syrian news agency)-President Bashar al-Assad issued today
Legislative Decree No. 37 on abolishing Article No. 548 of the Penal Law and
substituting it for another that states:

''He who catches his wife, sister, daughter or mother by surprise in the act
of committing adultery or having unlawful sex with another and then
unintentionally kills or hurts either of them can benefit from the
attenuating circumstances, provided that he serves a prison term of no less
than two years in the case of killing" .

Justice Minister, Ahmad Hamoud Younes, said in a statement to SANA, "The
number of wife killing has increased recently on the pretext of adultery,
and the cancelled article number 548 of the penal law pardoned those
crimes".

The Minister pointed out that this legislative decree no 37 issued on
1/7/2009 corrects those cases in the right way.
Manal Ismael/Idelbi/ Fadi Allafi /Mazen Eyon