85 inmates freed from jail to serve alternative punishments

The Public Prosecution yesterday announced that 85 inmates in the reformation and rehabilitations centres in the Kingdom will get their imprisonment sentences replaced with alternative punishments that include community service and taking part in rehabilitation and training programmes, among other procedures. This was mentioned in a statement posted by the Prosecution on its official page on Instagram yesterday, quoting Execution Prosecution Chief Prosecutor Hamad Al Qallaf.

Mr Al Qallaf explained that the move comes within the framework of the Kingdom’s Penal Code, which permits replacing imprisonment punishments with alternative punishments. The official explained that the decision was taken after assessing the conditions of the inmates to see if they fit the legal requirements so that they can serve the remaining periods of their punishment period with the alternative punishments stipulated in Law 18 of 2017, with respect to alternative sanctions and measures.

Clarifying further, Mr Al Qallaf said the has been reviewed with the Execution Judge, who issued the verdict to replace the remaining period of the imprisonment punishment of the inmates with several alternative punishments.   As reported earlier, Article 2 of the law mentions that the alternative punishments include community service, house arrest, confinement within a particular place, refraining from entering a particular place or places, undertaking to refrain from menacing or communicating with particular persons or entities, submitting to electronic surveillance, attending rehabilitation and training programmes, and remedying the damage that resulted from the crime.

The law also mentions that the alternative punishments shall only be applicable to prisoners who have served half the term of the sanction or sanctions he/she was sentenced to, to be of good conduct, their release from prison shall not constitute a public security risk, and shall have paid all the financial liabilities handed down against them by a criminal court, unless it is impossible for them to pay it.

Article 12 of the same law reads: “Any convicted person sentenced to imprisonment of not more than one year or physical coercion may request the Execution Judge to substitute the imprisonment sentence or physical coercion by one or more of the alternative sanctions set forth in Article 2 of this Law. “The execution judge shall decide upon such request after hearing the statements of the Public Prosecution.”