A number of Taif residents who were detained and fined by the city's Traffic Department Police for violations – particularly speeding and running red lights – intend to file a class action lawsuit against the department. Their lawsuit would center around their complaints of what they called “double sanctions,” meaning that they were both detained and fined, whereas the law stipulates either one, allowing both in only extreme cases. Detainees have also filed a complaint with the National Human Rights Society (NHRS), saying the detention centers were overcrowded and had smelly toilets inside them. Brigadier General Ahmad Al-Fa'ar, Chief of Traffic Police in Taif, said not only the department is simply implementing rules and regulations according to the penal law, but demanding an even tougher sanction for red-light running, of the caliber of confiscating the vehicle for two or three months. He said that in some GCC countries, any expatriate who runs a red light would be deported immediately. Fa'ar said these violations alone led to the death of 59 people in Taif last year. He added that after applying a new regulation that combined fines with detention, that number dropped to nine this year. The head of the National Human Rights Society in Makkah Province said the Society regularly conducts visits to jails and detention centers in Taif, adding that there are grievances committees at traffic administrations authorized to look into complaints and decide whether the sanctions were deserved. He said the Society has always been calling for dedicated traffic courts. However, Ali Bin Fraih Al-Uqla, a lawyer, said combining detention with fines against traffic violators is a breach of the general framework of regulations. He said that even though the current traffic law allows combining the two penalties, the mechanisms traffic administrations use in applying these penalties were improper, as violators do not have the right to defend themselves before a judge in a lawful trial, determined by the penal system, before being sanctioned. He added that he would not object to the fact that traffic violations are the main cause of traffic accidents and firm sanctions must be taken against perpetrators. “However, this should be done without depriving violators of their lawful right of defending themselves,” he said. He noted that traffic police officers do not have the legal qualifications to issue tickets that are considered as penal rulings, because the violator would be directly sanctioned. He said that a sanction should be determined in a court of law, as it is not fair for a violator to have the traffic police officer being a judge and an opponent all in one and to be judged with no possibility of appeal. – Okaz __
