ALEPPO, Syria — An opposition government in Idlib backed by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a coalition of Islamist factions, has imposed Islamic Sharia's hirabah law, which calls for severe retribution for lawbreakers.

The Ministry of Justice of the Syrian Salvation Government — formed last year as an alternative to the opposition's Syrian Interim Government — decreed adherence to hirabah beginning Dec. 10. Mohammed Kabakbaji, the attorney general of Idlib in the Syrian Salvation Government, told Al-Monitor the decision will be applied in the ministry's courts.

Under hirabah law, perpetrators of abductions and armed robberies deserve to be executed, have their hands cut off or be exiled, depending on the crime. The government says its decree was based on the hirabah verse in the Quran: “The punishments of those who wage war against Allah and His Prophet and strive to spread disorder in the land are to execute them in an exemplary way or to crucify them or to amputate their hands and feet from opposite sides or to banish them from the land. Such is their disgrace in this world, and in the hereafter theirs will be an awful doom, save those who repent before you overpower them; you should know that Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Ever Merciful.”

Anyone found guilty of leading or being part of a gang carrying out abductions or armed robberies in Idlib province is subject to the death penalty, whether they are civilians or part of the military.