Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Justice Sheikh Dr. Walid Al-Samaani, who is also the chairman of the Supreme Judiciary Council, emphasized that the new Personal Status Law is aimed at safeguarding the rights of citizens, especially women.

“There is a provision in the law for the payment of compensation by the husband in the event of breaching some rights and duties such as the delay in providing the proof of divorce. The law also regulates cases of Adhl, which involve male guardians prohibiting the marriage of women under their custody,” he said while noting that the law would serve woman’s interests from the beginning of the marriage contract until its end.

Attending a program titled “In the open” on the Saudi Television One with prominent Saudi writer Khaled Al-Suleiman, the minister hailed the statement of the Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman with regard to the judicial reforms.

“It was a declaration about historic transformation to improve the legislative environment in the Kingdom. The Crown Prince’s announcement included a correction in formulating the methodology of legislation by relying on the Kingdom’s fundamental references,” he said.

The Crown Prince announced last month that the government will introduce four key legislations — the Personal Status Law, Civil Transactions Law, Penal Code for Discretionary Sanctions, and the Law of Evidence — this year as part of government efforts to reform judicial institutions as well as to improve the legislative environment in the Kingdom.

Al-Samaani said that a directive has been issued by the higher authorities aimed at enhancing the reliability of title deeds which included not stopping or revoking any real estate deed based on an approved organizational chart. He also spoke about the initiative to digitize real estate wealth, which is estimated to cover more than 100 million real estate documents, of which 10 million documents have now been completed and the remainder is in the process of completion.

“There is a study to update the implementation law from the legal point of view and take into account the considerations related to the creditor and debtor, in order to ensure the existence of procedures for tracking funds and increasing electronic connectivity for a number of agencies. We now have an electronic link with more than 50 agencies and during the end of this year we will launch a fully virtual implementation court from the start of submitting the request to its implementation, and we will dispense with checks collection and it will be carried out fully through electronic means,” the minister added.