Jeddah, Nov 1 (Arab News): During the Hijri year 1437 that ended on Oct. 1, courts in the Kingdom ordered 3,287 husbands to pay alimony in cases where their wives filed law suits against their spouses or ex-spouses demanding support for themselves or their children.

The penalties for noncompliance with alimony rulings include jail time or additional fines.

According to a circular issued by Minister of Justice Waleed Al-Samaani to all courts during the month of Dul Qada, refraining from paying legal alimony is one form of violence against children. He stressed in his circular the importance of taking legal measures against fathers abstaining from paying alimony, and for dealing with them as violators subject to punishments for mistreating children.

The number of rulings related to alimony increased during the past year by 56 percent in comparison to the previous year when only 2,105 alimony rulings were issued.
Official statistics from the Ministry of Justice revealed that Makkah led in the number of rulings related to alimony (1,301) during the year, an increase of about 77 percent from the 735 cases in the previous year. Riyadh came in second with 884 rulings, up 21.7 percent from 1436, when 726 rulings were issued. The Eastern Province came in third with 452 alimony rulings, an increase of 89.9 percent from 1436 when only 238 rulings were issued.

For his part, Deputy Minister of Justice for Executive Affairs Hamad Al-Khodeeri said the regulations stipulate that a jail sentence of up to seven years applies to all those who refrain from implementing the final rulings against them, or who are proven to be hiding or smuggling their funds or failing to disclose their funds.
The same penalty applies to those who resist implementation through the use of threats — either by themselves or through someone else — against any employee or individual tasked with ensuring the implementation of a ruling.

Any illegal act intended to resist or delay implementation of a ruling is punishable by law, said Al-Khodeeri. This includes lying during court proceedings or providing inaccurate information to the court.

Anyone who assists a defendant in any of these acts in an effort to delay, lie about, resist, or abstain from the implementation of a ruling, he said, faces a jail sentence of up to seven years, he said.