RIYADH, Aug 18: Saudi Arabia’s justice ministry has started issuing licences for lawyers in a bid to regulate the legal profession as part of reforms to the Islamic justice system, experts and lawyers said on Sunday.

The first batch of licences was handed over to 24 lawyers in accordance with a new law that came into effect a few months ago.

Only qualified lawyers are to be allowed to practise and the justice ministry is the sole authority that issues such licences.

Previously the commerce ministry issued “trade licences” for lawyers to open legal offices.

“This is a welcome step to improve the legal profession and help achieve better justice. It will certainly be more helpful to defendants,” said Fahd al-Enezi, a professor of law at Riyadh’s King Saud University.

“It signifies the kingdom’s keenness to regulate the legal profession and develop the justice system. It also prevents outsiders from practising law,” he said.

The law provides lawyers with a better status than in the past.

“Now the lawyer is allowed to attend the interrogation of his client and appear in court sessions. This will help the clients. The bill certainly upgrades the position of advocates,” lawyer Kateb al-Shemmari said.

“The kingdom’s justice system is now complete, written and organized into well-defined legislation to the advantage of defendants,” Shemmari added.

Saudi Arabia, under fire for lack of legal protection for defendants, has put into effect this year two more laws to modify the justice system.

It allowed lawyers to present arguments in court in criminal cases. Lawyers were allowed to appear in court normally only for civil or commercial cases. Suspects in criminal cases were required to defend themselves.

The second law, known as the criminal procedural law, regulates the rights of defendants and suspects before courts and the police. It came into effect in May.

The new laws give suspects and defendants in criminal and other cases the right to hire lawyers during all stages of detention, investigation and trial.

Trials will be open to the public unless the judge decides otherwise for exceptional cases.

Two months ago, Justice Minister Abdullah al-Sheikh ordered that judges must read the verdict to the defendants in court, scrapping a practice that allowed judgments to be issued without informing convicts.

The criminal procedural law also forbids any physical or moral harm or torture to extract confessions from detainees, who must be referred to an interrogator within 24 hours of arrest.

Final verdicts are issued by a two-tier court system, but major verdicts like death and amputation must be approved by the Supreme Judicial Council.—AFP