The Minister of Justice has said that officials guilty of granting fake land title deeds would face the full wrath of the law regardless of whether they had resigned or retired from their posts. Minister Muhammad Al-Issa noted that some notaries had resigned of their own accord, but warned that justice would be pursued whether they were still in office or not. “We must not jump to conclusions, however, and should wait until the committee produces its recommendations, otherwise we would only be interfering in the committee's work,” Al-Issa added. The minister, making the remarks at the inauguration of a new Penal Court building in Riyadh, said that the coming days would see his ministry launch the first stage of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Project to Develop the Judiciary and a conference on international judicial verdicts. On the role of the Supreme Judicial Council with respect to appointing judges, Al-Issa described the law as “clear”. “The ambiguities appear when people do not read the law correctly. We have a model relationship with the council,” he said. According to Al-Issa, the Ministry of Justice is currently studying the GGC unified judicial courts project and expects the results to be approved “soon”. Al-Issa denied that the shortage of judges was a result of their selection from certain limited regions of the country, saying that it is the “most capable who gets the job”.
