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Tort, not crime

Sep 16,2017 - Last updated at Sep 16,2017

Two major “blemishes” exist in the legal order of the country that escaped the attention of the Royal Commission in updating the judicial system, not to mention the concern of successive ministers of justice and heads of national judiciary.

First is viewing a defamation or libel as a punishable crime instead of a “tort”, which leads to the detention, and even imprisonment, of a person charged with the commission of this violation.

The result is the step often taken by persons who feel that they are slandered, lodging complaints with the local authorities, most often the governor of the district where the alleged charge takes place.

This aberration continued even though internationally, such charges are treated as torts that could lead to the payment of damages or the imposition of a fine when proven in a court of law, but never to detention or imprisonment.

The line that divides freedom of speech and slander or libel is indeed thin, but even when it occurs in malice, the international norm is to treat it as a tort that incurs payment of damage or is punishable by a fine, but never by incarceration.

Why our legal scholars in the national judiciary never bothered to research this issue properly in order to comply with international standards is something that the Royal Commission in particular must deal with.

The second troubling feature in our legal system is the penal code provision that allows for the detention and eventually imprisonment of a person against whom there is lawsuit judgement that the said person must pay up when it becomes final, after exhausting all appeal steps.

Since when does a civil court lawsuit judgement lead to incarceration, often without the proper notification of the person against whom there is a such judgement?

In every corner of the world, civil court decisions are enforced by normal legal procedures that allow for the seizure or confiscation of assets of the person against whom there is such decision.

In our country, a person stands to be detained, without proper legal notification, the minute he or she steps into the country or travels within the country.

Why this is so must, once again, be answered by the Royal Commission.

The minister of justice called on the Judicial Execution Directorate to stay open 24/7 during the holidays to facilitate payment of judgements and avoid the detention of people returning to the country for the holidays, but this is not a big relief, since the amounts in question could be big and who can pay up, to avoid detention, the minute he or she clears immigration at the airport?

 

Besides this relief does not address the issue. The ultimate and permanent solution lies elsewhere, and that is to comply with international norms, pure and simple.

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