Criminal Court begins work on prolonged cases

The Criminal Court has begun work on extended cases of the court and will be aiming to conclude all of these cases by September 2020.

Criminal Court noted that the issue of these extended cases was the biggest faced by the court and arose due to the smaller number of judges appointed and working at the court. It noted that the court had operated with only three judges at times. The Court currently has nine judges.

Statistics show that there were around 2022 unfinished cases at the court by the end of 2018. The court closed 1339 cases in that year and the total number of unfinished cases at the court right now is numbered at 1661.

57 cases that have been delayed for five years remain at the court. 228 cases delayed for three to five years remain at the court, and 744 cases that were delayed by one to three years are still in court. 662 cases were not closed within one year at the court.

2305 orders of remand were issued by the Court last year. 659 orders to release from remand were also issued by the court last year. 1423 arrest or search warrants were issued by the court during that time. The court did not reject any requests by authorities for such an order during that time.

49 people remain to be flogged under the corporal punishment of Islam ordered by the Criminal Court. The court also ordered the flogging of a further 23 people last year. No such corporal punishments were handed out last year and a total of 72 people remain to be corporally punished by the court.

According to the current law, punishment can only be handed out after the case passes three court procedures. These punishments were not administered because none of the cases were sent to be enforced after the three procedures, according to the court.