Legal Corner: The rights of the accused in law Thursday, 02 June 2011 01:49

by Abdelaal A Khalil

It is one of the universally recognised principles that the accused is innocent until proven guilty. There is no doubt that the escape of a criminal from punishment would not harm the court in the same way as the oppression of the freedoms of people and restriction of their liberty without any right. Therefore, the judgment is based on the facts in the lawsuit. The Qatari Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code included the guarantees for the accused which cannot be violated. The most important of these guarantees is the right of the accused to remain silent and his right to contact someone who he sees fit. These legal guarantees granted by the criminal law to the accused in criminal offences are in accordance with the charters of human rights and guarantees that are applied in the communities that enjoy real freedom, whereas the law provides that no one can be arrested or imprisoned except by an order of the competent authorities and only in cases prescribed by the law. The accused must be treated in a dignified way. He must not be harmed physically or morally. The judicial officer must inform the accused about his right to remain silent and communicate with the one who he thinks fit. The judicial officer must listen to the statements of the accused immediately after his arrest. If there are sufficient evidences he must be presented within twenty-four hours to the public prosecution authorities. The public prosecution must interrogate the accused within twenty-four hours from the date of his presentation and order his release or detention on remand pending trial.

During the consideration of the case by the criminal courts, the law requires the presence of a counsel with the accused in criminal cases. If he could not bring a lawyer to defend him the court shall delegate a counsel for his defence. The guarantees also include the right of the accused to oppose the sentences in absentia, which are issues against him and the right to appeal in the primary judgments that are issued in his presence so as to enable him to defend himself before the two different judicial bodies in pursuant to the principle of two classes of litigation in order to give the defendant another opportunity to defend himself after the accused’s depletion of ways to challenge the sentence either by opposition or appeal. The judgment shall be implemented even if the accused challenged the judgment in front of the Supreme Court of appeals.

If the judgment of jail or prison is familiar in criminal cases the debtor also can be imprisoned in credit cases whereas the law points out that the prosecutor may ask to arrest the convict if he refuses to implement the final verdict issued against him. The execution judge, if it is proved to him that the convicted person did not comply with the order even when was able to implement the same, may order to imprison him for a term of not more than three months. If the debtor is a special juristic person, the order shall be issued to imprison the legal representative of the company. The convict shall be released only if he fulfilled with what he has been ordered to do or the other person on his behalf complied with the same or he brought an acceptable guarantor or the creditor requested to release him.

There is no doubt that these rules, regulations and legal provisions confirm and support the authority of the judicial rulings in matters in which they ruled and the issuance of a verdict in a case means that no other case on the same subject can be filed and this is another guarantee for the accused or debtors.

Therefore, for the sake of justice and fairness the concerned and the competent public prosecutor must take the initiative to arrest the convicts and imprison them in accordance with the law in order to preserve the social interests and individuals’ interests which are protected by law. There is no doubt that the phase of implementation of the provisions is one of the most important phases of the suit because the implementation of judgment is the implementation of justice and presentation of the truth as the implementation of the provision achieves the general deterrence to all members of the community even they do not allow themselves to commit the crimes. It is also a special deterrent for criminals who went out of the system, which legitimised him and put him in the community to regulate the behaviour of individuals. The law is binding on all and it is not permissible to evade its provisions and escape with excuse of ignorance of it.

The crime rate in Qatar is less than the rate of crimes in other countries and even one of the lowest in the world. The Qatari society is characterised by safety which may not exist elsewhere in the world felt by those who are living on the land of Qatar and testified by Qatar’s first position on the level of Arab states and the twelfth position in the world in the annual Global Peace Index for 2011.

In order to keep Qatar progressing, a system must be adopted that will require those who renew personal identities to disclose the existence of judgments issued against him before renewing identity cards such as the system which is used at the time of the renewal of cars. The cars’ registration is renewed only after the settlement of irregularities according to traffic law. There is no doubt that this will push all the convicts to settle their differences as soon as possible, in particular with regard to the provisions of the cheques, especially if the convict is competent to repay his debts, but he stalls the repayment and bargains with the creditor. The proverb “Delay in repayment of debt by a wealthy person is a form of oppression” is truly applied to him. We must appeal to ban the travel of the convicts if they are inside the country and put their names on the watch list if they are outside the country. This procedure shall contribute greatly to implement and end the issues for lifting this ban. This is in the interest of society and shall raise the rank of State Qatar in the Global Peace Index.