AMMAN — With the end of
Defense Order No. 28, which
postponed the imprisonment of those who owe up to JD20,000,
Jordan
News spoke to various experts about the outcomes.
اضافة اعلان
Here is what they had to say.
According to Yahya Abu Aboud, president of the Jordan Bar
Association, suspending the
defense order means returning to the ordinary laws
that regulate the relationship between creditors and debtors.
The Execution Law, which is the most relevant law related to
the regulation, was revised and implemented in August 2022. It gave the economy
and contracting parties "three years to establish alternatives to
imprisoning debtors in contractual obligations", said Abu Aboud.
The law also specified the number of cases in which debtors
may be imprisoned and clarified 13 cases in which they cannot be
imprisoned.
Abu Aboud also indicated that by simply "brandishing
the potential of imprisonment, the debtor will seek to satisfy the creditor
through settlement by paying 15 percent".
He also stressed that the new amendments aim to make a
settlement between the two parties so that the economy can function properly.
Abu Aboud said the
defense order "solved a problem at a
certain point in time, but it also caused different problems."
"Some decisions were issued but were not implemented,
so it was necessary to end Defense Order No. 28."
'Correct decision'?Lawyer Hussain Tawfeeq told
Jordan News that the
government's decision to cancel and suspend
Defense Order No. 28 was correct
for various reasons. The most important of which, he said. "is restoring
the legal and constitutional legitimacy of the Execution Law and its
amendments."
That is because "the Execution Law and its amendments
required the judge to imprison the debtor who did not submit a settlement
during the 15-day legal notification period".
He added that the government had to expedite this decision
because the creditor "was paralyzed both monetarily and legally".
He stressed that stopping the work of
Defense Order No. 28
would contribute to "moving the wheel of the economy".
However, Lawyer Hassan Hattab, a member of the International
Committee for Human Rights, told
Jordan News that the government
should have waited until the end of this year or until the World Health
Organization officially announced the end of the pandemic.
"We in Jordan are still suffering from the
repercussions of the pandemic that disrupted the economy," he said.
The question of prison overcrowdingMany have voiced concerns over prison overcrowding with the
end of the Defense Order.
In Jordan, there are more than 19,000 inmates in 18
institutions designed to hold no more than 13,300, according to the latest
statistics. The Public Security Directorate recently announced that the
percentage of overcrowding in prisons reached 163 percent.
Tawfeeq explained that prisons would "not face a
crisis" because Article 23 of the Execution Law has narrowed the cases where
the debtor may be imprisoned.
Hattab contended that prisons already suffer from
overcrowding, which would overburden the security services and prisons.
Lawyer Taghreed Al-Dughmi told
Jordan News with
the expiration of Defense Order No. 28, which stopped imprisonment in amounts
less than JD20,000, the implementation law will be applied, and anyone whose
debt exceeds JD5,000 will be legally prosecuted.
She added that after the expiration of the period, the
creditor would start filing cases in the courts to imprison the debtor.
Minister of Justice Ahmed Ziadat recently revealed that a
large number of the financially defaulted.
As of April 20, there were about 158,000 citizens wanted in
financial cases. Sixty-eight percent have a debt of less than JD5,000, and 87
percent have a debt of less than JD20,000.
Speaking before the Parliament's Legal Committee, Ziadat
stated that 30,000 citizens had been sentenced but have not been arrested in
financial cases, and their sentences vary from one year and up.
Given the end of Defense Order No. 28, the numbers mentioned
by the justice minister "will double," she said.
Dughmi called for a review of alternatives and guarantees
for the creditor, similar to the civil execution that is followed in many
countries, such as the inability of the debtor to complete his transactions
(such as issuing a professional license, a passport, or opening a bank account)
except after settling his debts in the courts.
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