The decision to appoint special policemen to help execute court verdicts quickly is a big step in securing justice to victims, according to experts. The special force, called ‘Judicial Police' will be a permanent set up from next year onwards, and the force will work along with judges who are designated to expedite execution of verdicts. “The decision will help strengthen the confidence of people in the judicial system,” Al-Riyadh Arabic daily reported quoting the experts. The decision to hire special policemen follows setting up of executive circuits in all regions of the Kingdom. More than 100 judges and over 400 employees have so far received advanced training on executing verdicts. There are about 300 executive circuits at the courts in all the 13 provinces of the Kingdom, and these circuits have started performing a great job in implementing court verdicts without delay since February last year. The Ministry of Justice recently issued directives to link online these executive courts with the Ministries of Interior, Housing, and Industry and Commerce, as well as the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority, and the Capital Market Authority. Under this move, which is aimed at quick implementation of verdicts ‘by force,' judges can exercise their powers directly to deduct the amount from the assets of debtors through an online mechanism without approaching concerned government offices. Appointment of Judicial Police will expedite this process tremendously. The police force will permanently be present at executive circuits. These policemen will have special professional training on how to help execute verdicts and deal gently with parties involved in the case. The training will also focus on how to have a knowhow about the verdicts to be implemented as well as to precisely know about both parties involved in the cases. Prominent legal expert and member of the National Society for Human Rights Dr. Saleh Al-Shoraidah said the decision to appoint Judicial Police is a significant step in judicial reforms being implemented in the Kingdom. “This is a superb idea that would be instrumental in avoiding unnecessary delay in getting justice done. It will help boost confidence of citizens in the judicial system,” he said, while drawing attention to the successful experiment of several Arab and other countries in this regard. Al-Shoraidah pointed out to the problems being faced by some executive judges in implementing verdicts with the help of police forces. As these policemen did not receive any type of training to help execute verdicts, they do not have any idea about the significance of verdicts or the immensity of dangers due to the delay in executing verdicts. They are also not aware of the consequences of the delay in executing verdicts. There should be training courses for at least a section of the police force in implementing verdicts, he said. Noted lawyer and legal consultant Abdul Nasser Al-Sohaibani hailed the decision to appoint Judicial Police, saying that this would help executing verdicts in a quick and effective way. “This will also be instrumental in curbing administrative and procedural delays caused by lack of expertise and training to policemen. There are several countries, which implemented this experiment successfully with the help of trained and competent police force.” Al-Sohaibani suggested the new decision may be enforced on an experimental basis in one of the major cities and if the experiment was found successful, then it should be implemented in all regions of the Kingdom in a phased manner. He noted that setting up of executive circuits and the decision to appoint special policemen showed growth in the Kingdom's legislative and judicial bodies. “The well-trained special police force would be instrumental in increasing the efficiency of the judicial system,” he added. Yousuf Al-Hamdan, another lawyer and legal consultant, noted that the present system of seeking help of local policemen in executing verdicts most often leads to delays in execution of verdict. “Policemen have to tackle a lot of work as part of their routine duty. Most often, they find it very difficult to devote more time to help executing verdicts. Moreover, they do not have or received any professional training in this regard,” he said. Al-Hamdan underlined the need for providing professional training to judicial police force. “The special policemen shall be trained to behave gently and leniently with both the parties involved in the case while executing the verdict. Decent and gentle behavior is significant as policemen are not supposed to punish the defendants in accordance with the verdict,” he said.
