New UAE law to help convicts find job after serving prison term

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

The UAE Federal National Council held its fourteenth session chaired by Saqr Ghobash, Speaker of the Council on Wednesday.

The FNC approved two federal bills regarding rehabilitation of convicts and allowing them to resume normal lives with job placement in the UAE.

Saqr Ghobash said that the Council approved a draft law on rehabilitation, which aims to speed up the integration of convicts into society, facilitate the convicts' access to a criminal case investigation certificate without precedents, facilitate access to jobs, and implement the idea of aftercare for convicts.

A draft federal law on rehabilitation organized the procedures for obtaining a person convicted of a felony or misdemeanor involving moral turpitude or dishonesty to restore his legal status, by specifying three matters: crimes for which legal rehabilitation may be made, the competent judicial authority for legal rehabilitation, and the dates for legal rehabilitation.

The new draft federal law regarding rehabilitation cancels and replaces Law No. 36 of 1992 law on rehabilitation.

The article of the scope of application stipulates that every person convicted of a misdemeanor or felony shall be rehabilitated in accordance with the provisions of this law, while the draft law classified rehabilitation according to the provisions of this law as follows: legal rehabilitation and judicial rehabilitation.

The law thus adopted provides that rehabilitation involves the cancellation of all criminal changes of the guilty verdict for the future and put an end to the resulting deprivation of rights.
The law also establishes certain general conditions for obtaining rehabilitation services.

Among them, a convicted person must fulfill all financial obligations specified in the court order to the state, unless these obligations have expired or if the offender proves that he is unable to fulfill them.

If several sentences have been pronounced against a convict, the process of rehabilitation will take place only after all have taken effect, provided that the most recent conviction is taken into account in the calculation of the time limit.

The law also provides for the condition that the pardon applicant must reside in the country at the time of submitting the application, and if the offender was convicted jointly, he only has to pay his own personal fee determined by the court.

The law also identifies six instances where inmates do not seek rehabilitation for the purposes of this law.

These include minor offenses for which convictions are accompanied only by fines and not by prison terms; crimes involving minors or people at risk of delinquency, crimes for which suspended sentences have been imposed; crimes for which a criminal provision has been issued; and crimes that require conciliation.