JEDDAH, 28 February 2008 — The Ministry of Justice will appoint 2,000 university graduates as judges to fill a shortage in the Kingdom’s courts, a newspaper reported yesterday.
“The ministry will select the most qualified graduates to enroll in the judiciary sector,” a ministry source told Al-Madinah newspaper, adding that the graduates would operate in the new appeal courts, which are scheduled to open in two years time as part of a project to develop the Kingdom’s judiciary.
The source said the ministry would advertise the positions in the next few days. The Ministry of Justice is currently reviewing new locations for four cassation courts, which are to be built in Madinah, Al-Jouf, Qassim and Abha. The proposed courts are part of 14 new cassation courts to be built across the Kingdom.
In two years, on completion of a judiciary development project, the cassation courts are to be converted into appeal courts, which will be closely monitored by the Supreme Court in Riyadh. The appeal courts are designed to give people, who are unsatisfied with verdicts issued by preliminary courts, to have their rulings reviewed.
The source also revealed that the ministry has started increasing the number of executive judges tasked with the job of executing and monitoring the methods of issuing verdicts — a job that was previously carried out by the security sector.
The new project, which will be complete in two years, is expected to create more than 2,000 jobs in the judiciary, said the source, adding that the Higher Judiciary Council would review applicants in coordination with the Ministry of Justice. The names would be forwarded to the higher authorities to issue a royal decree, he said.
