RIYADH – The Ministry of Justice has activated the "Distance Trial Project" in five courts and five prisons, after fulfilling all the technical and procedural requirements for the service, a Saudi Press Agency (SPA) report said. The main goal of the project is to speed up looking into the cases of prisoners and facilitate litigation procedures. The ministry disclosed that the project has been carried out in the criminal courts in Riyadh, Makkah, Dammam, Jeddah and Jazan. Using the system, 1,443 distance trials were carried out, serving 1,650 prisoners, in cooperation with the Directorate of Prisons. The ministry said that it is in the process of setting up "distance trial centers" in the Kingdom's major prisons so as to intercommunicate and coordinate with the judicial circuits and provide the support equipment for distance telecommunication, in order to minimize the procedures for transporting prisoners to courts. The Ministry of Justice also disclosed that distance trials during the past period were carried out via 68 virtual judicial centers equipped with sophisticated communication systems aiming to activate video communication between prisons and courts, in addition to linking other judicial authorities with the Unified Translation Center. The project aims to cut down the litigation period and decrease time and effort while ensuring achievement of all the judicial guarantees for the defendants and prisoners during trials. The project also comes within the endeavors and development policies of the Ministry of Justice to digitize judicial services. The ministry added that distance trials would facilitate matters for prisoners and save time and effort, as there will be no need for them to leave their prison.
