SAUDI ARABIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Saud AlRomi, Mostafa Ihab and Saleh Elbadry, Mohammed AlDhabaan & Partners Eversheds Sutherland
the same law. Under Article 26 of the Civil Procedure Law, jurisdiction extends to non-Saudis without King - dom residence where the obligation originated in or the place of performance is in the Kingdom, or where one of multiple defendants has a place of residence in the Kingdom. Article 26 of the Implementing Regu - lations of the Civil Procedure Law clarifies that the Kingdom is deemed the place where an obligation originated if the contract was concluded inside the Kingdom, and the place of performance if the contract provides for performance wholly or partly within the Kingdom. Under Article 28 of the Civil Procedure Law, parties may also submit to Saudi court jurisdiction by agreement. Under Article 29 of the Civil Procedure Law, Saudi courts have jurisdiction over precautionary and provisional measures enforced in the Kingdom regardless of whether they have jurisdiction over the underlying claim. Once jurisdiction is established, the claimant pro - ceeds to serve the overseas defendant – the proce - dure for which is discussed in 4.2 Service of Proceed- ings out of the Jurisdiction . Under Article 23 of the Civil Procedure Law and its Implementing Regulation, all documents coming from outside the Kingdom must be attested by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Justice and translated into Arabic. Under Article 21 of the Civil Procedure Law, a 60-day extension applies to both appearance deadlines and challenge periods for persons residing outside the Kingdom, which the court may extend for a further similar period. Mutual Legal Assistance Under the Anti-Money Laundering Law Where fraud involves money laundering or predi - cate offences, the Anti-Money Laundering Law pro - vides a separate mutual legal assistance framework applicable to countries with which the Kingdom has concluded agreements or on the basis of reciproc - ity. Under Article 38, competent authorities may exchange information and conduct inquiries on behalf of foreign counterparts. Under Article 39, mutual legal assistance may be provided in respect of money laun - dering and predicate offence investigations, including tracing, seizure, recovery and confiscation of funds and proceeds of crime. Under Article 40, a final confis - cation order issued by a competent foreign court may be recognised and enforced in the Kingdom. Under
Article 41, accused or convicted persons may be extradited to or from the Kingdom in money launder - ing cases. Mutual legal assistance requests are han - dled by the Permanent Committee for Mutual Legal Assistance under Article 42. The Riyadh Arab Agreement for Judicial Cooperation (1983) Saudi Arabia is a party to the Riyadh Arab Agree - ment for Judicial Cooperation of 1983 (the “Riyadh Convention”), together with over 20 Arab states. The Riyadh Convention provides the primary framework for obtaining judicial assistance from other Arab states in both civil and criminal matters. In criminal matters it covers: • service of criminal documents through the Minis - tries of Justice under Article 6; • letters rogatory for the examination of witnesses, collection of evidence and other judicial proce - dures under Articles 14–20; • exchange of criminal records under Article 5; and • extradition of persons charged or convicted of offences carrying a liberty-depriving penalty of at least one year under Articles 38–45. Where a contracting state declines to extradite its own nationals, it undertakes to prosecute them domesti - cally under Article 39. Interpol Saudi Arabia is a member of Interpol. Where a fraud suspect has fled the jurisdiction and the applicable requirements under Interpol’s Rules on the Process - ing of Data are fulfilled – including the existence of an arrest warrant and satisfaction of the minimum penalty threshold under Article 83 – the public prosecution may request its National Central Bureau to publish a Red Notice under Article 82 of the Rules, seeking the location and detention, arrest or restriction of movement of the wanted person for the purpose of extradition or similar lawful action. Red Notices may be complemented by Diffusions under Article 97 – a more flexible mechanism for circulating co-operation requests directly to selected member countries.
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