The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

Ongoing violations | Pharmaceutical factories in Tartous forcibly close for not paying levies to Al-Assad family

Tartous province: SOHR sources have reported that 15 pharmaceutical factories were closed and completely suspended in Tartous and Safita cities in north-eastern Tartus countryside and several other areas due to pressures exerted by the regime’s security services.

According to the sources, the reason for closing these factories was due to the refusal of the factories’ owners to share some profits with “Al-Assad” family figures. However, there was no legal justification for imposing levies on them.

It is worth noting that the owners of Pharmaceutical factories have moved from Aleppo city since the beginning of the Syrian Revolution to Tartous, following the shelling and fierce battles that took place in the city between the regime forces and the opposition factions, prompting the majority of industrialists and merchants to move from there to other areas of Syria or abroad.

Many members of Al-Assad family and cronies are well-known for their vast wealth and major investment projects, and they control the vital sectors of Syria and put their hand on Syria’s wealth at the expense of civilians, for being backed by security forces grip.