JEDDAH, 28 April 2007 — Officials from the courts, the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), lawyers and members of a committee charged with pretrial dispute resolution between litigants met this past week and discussed the possibility of forming a center that would teach and certify people on reconciliation techniques.
JCCI Chairman Saleh Al Turki and Rashid Al-Hazza, the head of the Jeddah courts, attended the meeting.
Saudi Arabia places special emphasis on pretrial dispute resolutions utilizing experienced reconciliation experts, especially in criminal cases that involve the death penalty. These negotiators attempt to find a way to satisfy victims of crime, such as convincing them to accept less blood money from the persons that violated their personal rights. Al-Turki said that the idea of the new reconciliation center would be to create and qualify professional reconciliation experts.
Currently there is no official program for creating reconciliation experts. Al-Hazza said that there are currently 167 cases under a reconciliation process in Jeddah, of which 54 percent of them are nearly finalized without the need of going to court.
Al-Turki also updated the public on the JCCI program to help debtors that have gone to prison for an inability to pay off loans. The JCCI is in the process of helping some 400 debt prisoners in Jeddah as part of the chamber’s community responsibility program.
Al-Turki said the JCCI would begin working for the release of 100 prisoners next month. The JCCI earlier this year created a fund for releasing debt prisoners. The JCCI says that the fund currently has SR6 million worth of donations from businessmen.
