Saudi gov’t decides to deport young foreign drug offenders

The Saudi Arabia government has issued a new policy to deport all foreign juvenile drug offenders, provided they should stand trial in their own countries.
A report on news site Arab News said the Saudi government retains the right to try, convict, and sentence young foreign offenders, but the ruling should be ratified based on laws of the offender's country of origin.
Also, the report said the Saudi Supreme Court based its decision from a request submitted by several judges.
Citing a local news report, the Arab News said the Saudi high court has already written a letter to the Interior Ministry seeking its approval for the measure.
The Saudi high court, however, insists that juvenile offenders "must not be detained with adult criminals in the country’s prisons but must be held at social shelters, and that they must be interrogated in the presence of social workers and psychologists."
As of 2014, some 2.2 million Filipinos were in the Middle East, most of them in Saudi Arabia.


However, estimates on the number of young Filipinos (below 25 years of age) in the Kingdom were not readily available. — LBG, GMA News

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