The Extent of the Guardian's Right to Pardon Crimes and Penalties in Accordance with the Provisions of the Shari'a and the Saudi Penal Regulations

Abstract

The study addressed an important issue concerning the extent of the legal guardian's right to pardon crimes according to the provisions of Shari'a and the Saudi penal system within two independent approaches. In the first part, we addressed the amnesty of the legal guardian in Sharia. We discussed the extent to which it is permissible to pardon the violent crimes, crimes of retribution, deception and crimes of ta'zir. It was concluded that crimes are not pardoned at all by the legal guardian or the individuals, whether in Sharia or in the civil system. As for the crimes of Kissas and Diyyat, the rulings of Sharia and the Saudi penal laws are consistent with the non-right of legal guardian to pardon. The right to pardons is limited to the avengers of blood heir if they are related to their own rights without public rights. The legal guardian has the right to pardons them if they concern the Islamic values. It is observed that there are differences of jurisprudence about the right of the legal guardian to pardon the crimes of Taizir, some of whom allowed the legal guardian absolute pardon in all crimes. Others believe the restriction of this right to a certain group of them.The second part of this study focuses on the legal conditions and effects of the amnesty issued by the legal guardian. It is concluded that Islamic jurisprudence did not stipulate conditions for the issuance of a pardon by the legal guardian. These conditions were drawn through the sayings of the Islamic jurists ‘Fuqaha’. The penal system in Saudi Arabia is clear regarding this issue; amnesty whether is private or public, it does not affect the personal rights of the victim. According to the above, a number of conclusions and recommendations were mentioned at the end of the research.

Keywords: Amnesty, guardian, retribution, blood money, borders, Ta'zir, Saudi regulator, punishment, legal systems

DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/86-20

Publication date:June 30th 2019