RIYADH, 19 August — The Ministry of Justice has started issuing licenses to lawyers in an attempt to regulate the legal profession as part of reforms to the Islamic justice system, lawyers said yesterday.
The first batch of 24 lawyers were given licenses in accordance with a new law that came into effect a few months ago. Only qualified lawyers are to be allowed to practise and the Ministry of Justice is the sole authority to issue such licenses. Previously, the Ministry of Commerce issued "trade licences" for lawyers to open legal offices.
"This is a welcome step to improve the legal profession and help achieve better justice. It will certainly be more helpful to defendants," Fahd Al-Enezi, a professor of law at Riyadh’s King Saud University told AFP. "It signifies the Kingdom’s keenness to regulate the legal profession and develop the justice system. It also prevents outsiders from practising law," he said.
The law provides lawyers with a better status than in the past. "Now the lawyer is allowed to attend the interrogation of his client and appear in court sessions. This will help the clients. The bill certainly upgrades the position of advocates," lawyer Kateb Al-Shemmari told AFP.
"The Kingdom’s justice system is now complete, written and organized into well-defined legislation to the advantage of defendants," Shemmari added. Saudi Arabia, which lacked legal protection for defendants, has put into effect this year two more laws to modify the justice system.
It allowed lawyers to present arguments in court in criminal cases. Lawyers were allowed to appear in court normally only for civil or commercial cases. Suspects in criminal cases were required to defend themselves.
The second law, known as the criminal procedural law, regulates the rights of defendants and suspects before courts and the police. It came into effect in May.
The new laws give suspects and defendants in criminal and other cases the right to hire lawyers during all stages of detention, investigation and trial. Trials will be open to the public unless the judge decides otherwise in exceptional cases.
Two months ago, Justice Minister Abdullah Al-Sheikh ordered that judges must read the verdict to the defendants in court, scrapping a practise that allowed judgments to be issued without informing convicts. The criminal procedural law also forbids any physical or moral harm or torture to extract confessions from detainees, who must be referred to an interrogator within 24 hours of arrest. Final verdicts are issued by a two-tier court system, but major verdicts like death and amputation must be approved by the Supreme Judicial Council.
In certain cases, convicts can appeal final judgements and if successful, they can file for material damages.
Javid Hassan adds: Commenting on the new licensing procedure, Saudi lawyer Ahmed Al-Amri told Arab News from Jeddah that the regulations make no distinction between a law graduate and an experienced attorney so long as they have a degree in Shariah law from any university in the Kingdom. "There should have been a system of gradation or segmentation. Now a newcomer to the profession and one with 30 years’ experience, for example, are placed in the same level. They should have been categorized according to their experience and specialty. The present licensing system does not take these factors into account," Al-Amri said.
The licensing procedure should require an applicant to be a law graduate with specialization in a chosen field. He should have a crime-free record. "What they are doing now is that they give him five years to correct his status, if he is not legally qualified to practise his profession. That is because they do not want to close down his office so long as he has a university degree. Those who had been licensed by the Ministry of Commerce should now apply for a license from the Ministry of Justice to regularize their status."
Al-Amri stressed the need for an institution for graduating Saudis as legally certified attorneys. Such an institution could also keep them updated on the status of the law. He said that in order to be eligible for the grant of a license to practise the legal profession, the applicant’s track record should be studied."They should be segmented into grades. For instance, a lawyer with 10 years’ experience should qualify for the first level and one with five yearsí experience or more should be placed in the second level."
Al-Amri said the licensing procedure followed by the Ministry of Justice is not much different from that of the Ministry of Commerce, which also issued a license without considering any particular norms. "The Ministry of Justice should lay down proper procedures for obtaining a legal license and punish the attorneys if they don’t follow them. Some of the practising lawyers do not have any specialist qualifications and should, therefore, be weeded out of the market, he added.
