Judicial System

Judicial System in Saudi Arabia
of many countries, including the Saudi law, try to strike a
balance between the freedom of the media in publishing
news on legal cases and the requirements for controlling
justice procedure.
To that effect, section (154) of the Saudi Criminal
Procedure Law provides that court hearing must be public;
however, courts, in exceptional instances, may hold secret
sessions or prohibit certain category of people from
attending certain sessions because of security considerations
or for maintaining public moral, or if the court considers
such secrecy will serve the truth. Besides, section (164)
of the Saudi Criminal Procedure Law provides that
announcement of rulings must be in a public session with
citation of reasoning. Section nine of the Printed Matter and
Publication Law prohibits publication of facts pertaining
to investigation and trials without obtaining permission
of the relevant authority. Although one might notice some
contradiction between publicity of court sessions and
prohibition of publication of trial facts; however, these may
be reconcilable. It is also important to note that the section
prohibiting publication does not cite commenting on rulings.
This raises an important question: When comment is
lawful and useful exercise taking into account freedom of
opinion and expression, and when it becomes a violation to
law? The truth is that this matter is subject to differences
among the legal profession as well as between lawyers on
the one hand, and the media people and people concerned
364