Judicial System

Judicial System in Saudi Arabia
Justice will violate the principle of the ‘independence of
the judiciary’ and strikingly conflicts with legal provisions
prohibiting intervention in the works of the judiciary
including article one of the Judiciary Law, ‘’Judges are
independent and, in the administration of justice, they shall be
subject to no authority other than the provisions of Shari’ah
and laws in force. No one may interfere with the Judiciary’.
And article five of the Council of Ministers Law provides for
punishment for any intervention from any minister, the said
article provides that, ‘without prejudice of any provision
in any other law, an accused person charged under the
provisions of this Law shall be subject to imprisonment for
a period of 3 – 10 years if committed any of the following
offences …. personal intervention in the judicial affairs or
the affairs of government departments’.
Indirect interventions have numerous forms and below
we will concentrate on two of these forms:
The first form: obstructing enforcement of judicial rulings:
a court ruling may be passed, however it may not be enforced
either because of the inability of the concerned administrative
body to enforce the ruling or because of intervention of
influential and powerful people – and in cases, the ruling
may be overruled. The defendant may be an expatriate in
a criminal case and some authorities may intervene to
stop enforcement of the ruling on pardon / amnesty basis
from the King. Such situations cause embarrassment to the
government because there are numerous authorities engaging
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