Not only police can detain criminals, paperwork can too. Buried under a little mountain of paperwork of 30 criminal cases, nine government departments took 5,967 days to process them, a new study has found. Conducted by the National Committee for Prisoner Care, the study randomly selected 30 criminal cases from Jeddah prisons to follow up on their routes across government offices, finding that each case was delayed for 198.9 days for procedural measures. According to the study, the Investigation and Prosecution Commission (IPC) in Jeddah topped the laxity list with 45 percent, taking 2,802 days to process the 30 cases, followed by the police with 1,751 days at 34 percent. The General Court was found to take 573 days to clear the cases, the study said. Jeddah Governorate took 286 days while the subordinate court took 175 days to process the 30 cases, the study found. Makkah Emirate and the Drugs Combat Department were found to be relatively fast processing the cases in 161 and 100 days, respectively. Appeals Commission was a little faster finalizing its part of the paperwork of the 30 cases in 76 days. The Ministry of Interior office in the Makkah Region was found to be the fastest to process the 30 criminal cases in only 43 days, the study said. – Okaz __
