Laws against kissing in public, gesticulating rudely while driving and other such offences are “silly”, according to the founder of the UAE’s largest law firm.
In an interview with Arabian Business, Essam Al Tamimi, founder and senior partner at Al Tamimi & Co, described the UAE’s strict laws on slander and indecency as antiquated, and said he was working with the government on possible reforms.
Anyone caught kissing or cuddling in public, making rude hand signals while driving, drinking alcohol without a licence or otherwise offending people and the traditional customs of the UAE can face heavy fines or even imprisonment under current regulations.
But Al Tamimi revealed processing claims related to such offences costs the UAE courts on average AED100,000 ($27,000) per case. This is a waste of time and money, he said, and reform is “very much on the agenda.
“There are a couple of articles in our penal law that provide for such things as being crimes and because of this the parties are forced to take action otherwise they would be ignoring people who reach out to the authorities in honest respect of the law,” he explained.
“I have had this discussion with the authorities many times – about somebody giving somebody else the finger from a car; maybe somebody gave a kiss to someone on the beach or somebody shouted at somebody.
“Opening a file and processing this sort of claim costs the legal system on average AED100,000 to get the criminal mechanisms in place each time to deal with such a silly offense.
“But the beauty of the system is you have to execute the law as it is. The guy on the desk cannot exercise his judgment on these articles because otherwise he could exercise his judgment on, say rape, and say, ‘sorry, no, I’m not going to prosecute you’.
“So these silly articles exist; they are applied, and sometimes we waste a lot of time and money in following them up.”
Al Tamimi noted a clash between the traditional viewpoint held by many decisionmakers in government, and encroaching modernity.
People fall into two camps, he said: those who consider such laws as antiquated and silly, and those more traditional people who like them and want to keep them.
“The reason you haven’t seen changes overnight is because of that clash with the classic, traditional people who think you should not the door for people to kiss in every corner and go to the mall dressed in a bikini!”
Al Tamimi said he is working with the government on possible reforms, including the idea of a ‘tourist court’ to fast-track such ‘misdemeanours’ – which are often committed by visitors ignorant of UAE legislation and customs – directly from police to a hearing, or a traffic violation-style system under which people are fined for offences rather than being treated as criminals.
But progress is slow, he added: “The authorities are aware of the issues and are trying to do something about it, but between smuggling weapons, drugs, murder, rape and everything else, two people kissing on a beach is not top of the agenda,” he said.
The UAE government has been mulling the creation of a minor offences court for some time now. It was reported in April that such a court would aim to settle offences such as drinking alcohol without a licence and driving under its influence between 10 to 30 days. At the time, it was said that the court would start handling cases by the end of this year, but it has yet to be established.
This week, other high profile UAE lawyers urged the government to issue temporary alcohol licences for non-Muslim tourists to prevent them “getting into trouble” during their stay.”
Read the full interview with Essam Al Tamimi in Arabian Business this Sunday.
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