JEDDAH, 23 November — The Interior Ministry plans to bring all cases related to the violation of individual rights and financial claims under the jurisdiction of Shariah courts. Such cases are presently being handled by the reconciliation and investigations department of the civil rights administration.
The ministry has decided to make these changes on the basis of the recommendations of a committee appointed by Interior Minister Prince Naif.
The committee also redefined the duties of the reconciliation and investigations department, which will now be the sole agency responsible for implementing the judgments made by the courts and other judicial bodies related to individual rights. However, a source at the Justice Ministry said Shariah courts will demand the retaining of the reconciliation department to take away some of the accumulating workload from the courts under the new arrangement. A considerable number of the cases can easily be resolved by the reconciliation department, a source said.
Isa Al-Ghaith, judge at the Tabuk summary court, said "the committee ignored two factors when it decided to wind up the reconciliation department. Firstly, the courts are presently overloaded with cases and secondly the new system will delay the disposal of the cases which will, no doubt, negatively affect the interests of the contending parties."
He added that 70 percent of the cases are being resolved by the reconciliation department and only the remaining are passed on to the Shariah courts. The committee comprised representatives of the ministries of interior, justice, commerce, finance and national economy, and labor and social affairs. The court of grievances and the board of investigation and public prosecution have also been represented by the committee.
As an initial step before the implementation of the recommendation, the director of the public security issued a circular to all the reconciliation departments in various provinces to make a report on the obstacles they will face when the committee’s recommendations are implemented.
The officials want to know if they will have to continue receiving complaints from the public and bring both the contending parties to Shariah courts. The director explained to them that the only responsibility of the department will be to implement the court decisions. Surplus officials can be deployed for the speedy implementation of court decisions.
More than 600 judges are currently serving in the Kingdom’s various Shariah courts. They dealt with half a million cases in 1999.
