President al-Assad issued Legislative Decree No. (4) of the year 2020 to tighten the penalty for anyone who broadcast, published or re-published fabricated facts or false or fake allegations by any of the advertising means such as speech, writing, drawings, pictures, films, badges and pictures mentioned in the second and third paragraphs of Article 208 of the Penal Code Or, via the Internet, to bring about the decline or instability of the national banknotes or their exchange rates specified in the official bulletins or to undermine confidence in the strength of the country's cash and bonds and all bonds related to public financial confidence.
According to the new decree, Article 309 of the Penal Code promulgated by Legislative Decree No. 148 of 1949 and its amendments was amended, to make the punishment temporary detention and a fine of one million to five million Syrian pounds ... while previously imprisonment was from six months to three years and a fine of two hundred and fifty pounds to One thousand Syrian pounds.
The decree also ruled not to apply discretionary mitigating reasons to the crimes punished in the above article, and that the crimes stipulated in this article should not be released in all the roles of investigation and trial.