Dr. Ghassan Arnous
Legal Advisor at Zayed Al Shamsi Advocates and Legal Consultants.

Achieving swift justice is one of the most important goals that modern criminal procedural legislations aim to attain. The accused has the right to a fair trial conducted through prompt procedures, and the UAE legislator recognized this principle. To achieve this, the legislator introduced mechanisms, one of the most important being the penal order.

The UAE legislator defined the penal order in Article 336 of the Federal Criminal Procedure Law issued by Federal Decree-Law No. (38) of 2022, as follows:

“A penal order is a judicial order issued by a member of the public prosecution to resolve the matter of a criminal case that is not considered suitable for dismissal or referral to the competent court, in cases of misdemeanors and violations specified in this chapter, even in the absence of the accused. The order results in the termination of the criminal case unless the accused objects within the legally specified period.”

In Article 337 of the same law, the legislator specified the scope of the penal order’s application:

“1. The provisions of the penal order apply to misdemeanors and violations specified in the laws in force in the state, punishable by penalties other than mandatory imprisonment.
2. The Public Prosecutor shall determine, by a decision issued in agreement with the chief prosecutors of local judicial authorities, the misdemeanors and violations to which the provisions of the penal order shall apply. Each chief prosecutor will issue the necessary decisions to implement the provisions of this article within their jurisdiction.”

However, certain crimes are excluded from the application of the penal order, as stated in Article 338 of the Criminal Procedure Law:

*”The following crimes are excluded from the application of the provisions of the penal order:

1. Crimes involving qisas (retribution) and blood money (diyat).
2. Crimes affecting the security of the state and its interests.
3. Crimes that influence the judiciary, damage its reputation, or disrupt judicial proceedings.
4. Crimes specified in the Juvenile Offenders Law.
5. Crimes for which the law does not allow a reduction in the prescribed punishment.
6. Crimes in which the law mandates deportation as a penalty.”*

The scope of this topic is intended to cover all provisions related to the penal order. The legislator has established a comprehensive system for it within the UAE Federal Criminal Procedure Law, which we will explore in more detail in upcoming articles, God willing.