The regime’s intelligence services carried out a campaign of arrests of more than 30 young men from the capital, Damascus, who were accused of doing business using the US dollar.
The Sawt Al-Asima correspondent said that patrols belonging to the military security branch, and others belonging to the criminal security, targeted many shops in the markets of al-Hamidiyah, al-Hariqa, and al-Marjah, in addition to some shops in the Damascus Tower.
According to the correspondent, the patrols focused their campaign on the shops that sell smartphones and other electronic gadgets, and whose prices are in dollars, stressing that they did not target any of the money transfer and money exchange shops.
The arrests came after the patrols had put the targeted shops on their radar. The correspondent indicated that some of the aforementioned stores price in the dollar instead of the Syrian pound.
The correspondent confirmed that some of the detainees were accused of “spreading rumors” about the exchange rates and the devaluation of the pound.
According to the correspondent, the patrols accused a number of detainees of relying on “suspicious” mobile applications to decide on the exchange rate of the dollar.
In 2020, the Sawt Al-Asima team documented the arrest of 453 people — including 15 women, 56 children, and two people with special needs — on charges related to security and criminal issues, communicating with opposition parties, and other charges related to terrorism.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
