Al-Riyadh newspaper

DEBT prisoners are imprisoned by executive courts for failing to pay back their loans. There are big differences between these prisoners. I do not mean the difference between the amounts of loans they have taken. Some of them may be jailed for not paying thousands of riyals, while others may be indebted for tens or hundreds of millions of riyals. I mean the difference is in the reasons for taking loans.

The executive laws insist that debtors who procrastinate payment of loans or even default on installments should be imprisoned. Article 83 of the law has been amended explaining cases when a debtor can be imprisoned. The paragraph 1/2/83/A of the law explains that the debtor must be imprisoned if the loan amount was used for fraudulent purposes or the debtor was involved in embezzlement and illegal activities.

Our readers can imagine the wide gap between prisoners, who have been incarcerated for defaulting on debt, for one of them is jailed for not paying hundreds of millions of riyals while the one next to him is put in prison for not paying a small amount of thousands of riyals, which he/she could not pay because of his/her difficult financial conditions and the loan was taken either to meet his needs or that of his dependents!

The executive bylaw has been amended to tackle some cases of the secondary category prisoners as it has brought imprisonment of the debtor within the powers and discretion of the execution court judge. This is a very positive decision taken by the Ministry of Justice and it reaffirms the ministry’s understanding of hundreds of humanitarian cases of debt prisoners, who have ended up in jail for taking consumer loans.

I would like to make some important observations regarding this issue. First, even after the amendment of the executive bylaw there are still hundreds of prisoners incarcerated in prison and they don’t have agents to defend their cases at the executive courts. All they had done was they had taken loans to meet their basic life requirements.

I hope the authorities would look into the cases of such prisoners and the ministry would take measures for their quick release after dropping charges against them.

Second: The amended executive bylaw says the imprisoned debtor should be indebted to more than five parties and the debtor may misuse this clause to manipulate the rights of creditors. We know that a lot of people having limited income borrow money from close relatives and friends and purchase things from grocery shops to meet the livelihood of their families. The total loans of these indebted people would not exceed SR100,000 and the clause allows the presence of not less than five creditors. So I request the ministry to put another restriction that the total debt should exceed SR200,000 for imprisonment.

Third: the social, economic and legal changes that have occurred recently in the Saudi society demand from people to review their consumption policy and the launch of an integrated national program with the involvement of related ministries to dry up sources of consumer debts.

When we conduct a research on these loans we can find that they were taken for purchasing luxurious goods and not for essential goods and services and that such consumer loans accumulated because of the insistence of some people having limited income to live like well-to-do people.

There are two parties involved in the debt problem: the consumer and the creditor, which may be a bank or any other financial institutions that call people in the morning and evening to encourage them to take consumer loans for trivial reasons. When clutches of loans encircle debtors, these institutions make their lives a living hell when there is a disruption in paying back the amount.

Here I would like to propose that measures should be taken to prevent campaigns that encourage the public to take consumer loans. We should also hold public awareness programs to enlighten consumers about the negative effect of taking such loans on their families.

I also take this opportunity to call upon authorities to review the cases of thousands of poor debt prisoners and release them as they should not have been put behind bars in the first place.