Fathers and husbands evading family cases against them will be denied government services and banned from travel, an official judicial source was quoted by Arabic daily Al-Eqtisadiah yesterday. The procedures are aimed at ending the stalling of some husbands through skipping court hearings. The cases currently take a long time in courts.

Other procedures will be implemented later. These include arresting and bringing evaders to court when they do not respond to court summons.

These procedures were agreed upon by judges to end the suffering of women in such cases. The cases linger for years mostly because one of the parties stall the proceedings.

If the procedures are approved, evaders will be denied the ability to pay traffic violations, carry out marriage procedures, register newborn babies and recruit foreign workers.

Also submitted to the Ministry of Justice is a proposal to look into the possibility of forcing a divorced man to discuss child custody and visits and the amount of financial payment to benefit the children. The source said that in some Gulf countries, these matters are determined during the divorce session in court and are included in the official divorce document, aiming to avoid the emergence of new custody problems after the divorce becomes official. In these countries the child support payments are deducted from the man’s salary directly to prevent evasion.

Several Ministry of Justice departments are working on procedures to prevent a husband’s evasion of family-related cases filed against them, the most important of which is the issuance of alimony. Minister of Justice Muhammad Al-Isa said earlier that his ministry would pursue those stalling the alimony payments to their divorced wives through the “alimony fund” project that the authorities are expected to approve. “The project is being studied by relevant bodies,” said the minister.

The idea is that the fund will be a stalling husband’s rival in court, not the woman. If a court grants a divorced woman alimony and her former husband stalls on payments, she would be able to obtain her Sharia amount from the fund. The fund would then pursue the other party through court.