RIYADH — The Ministry of Justice reported there have been 507 lawsuits calling for travel ban during the past nine months. The reports showed an increase in comparison to the same nine months of last year when lawsuits calling for travel ban reached 489 cases, Al-Hayat reported The reports also showed Madinah province alone had 145 cases of travel ban while the Northern Borders had none for the past 21 months. Qassim province had a total of 140 cases. Makkah province had 75 cases so far while last year it had a total of only 44 cases. The report also revealed Riyadh courts dealt with 48 travel ban cases, Eastern Province recorded 39 cases, Asir recorded 26, which is double the number of cases last year, and Jazan had 13 cases so far. Najran, Hail and Baha only recorded one case each. Tabuk and Al-Jouf recorded nine cases each. Legal consultant Saud Al-Assaf said travel ban cases are increasing all across the Kingdom. “It is due to the increase of the population in all provinces of the Kingdom. Travel ban is a sentence given in many cases such as unpaid debts, medical errors or murder and assault,” said Al-Assaf. He added the travel ban is a penalty at the disposal of the judge and he may give it in any case he sees fit. “In some cases detention in the country of the persons involved facilitates disposal of the lawsuits,” said Al-Assaf. Legal consultant Bayan Zahran said travel bans are issued by the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Interior. “Travel bans are not only issued by the general courts and the penal courts. They are also issued by personal status courts in cases such as custody battles. The Passports Department legally allows the children of a divorcee to travel while the Ministry of Justice bans a divorcee from travel if she is facing a lawsuit,” said Zahran.
