Damascus, (SANA)-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