His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik has recently issued a Royal Decree No. 68/2022 amending some provisions of the Penal Law.
The Official Gazette published on Sunday provided the details of the Royal Decree 68/2022 amending some provisions of the Penal Law, and after reviewing the Basic Law of the State, and the Penal Code issued by Royal Decree No. 7/2018 and based on what the public interest requires, the first article stipulates making the amendments attached to the aforementioned Penal Code.
Article one of the Royal Decree stated that amendments shall be made to the aforementioned penal code, while Article 2 stated that this decree shall be published in the Official Gazette, and shall come into force from the day following the date of its publication.
Some of the highlights of the new amendments are as follows:
The text of Article (97) of the Penal law shall be replaced by the following one:
The punishment for anyone who either openly or by means of publication commits slander against the Sultan and his authority, or denigrates him personally, shall face imprisonment for a term of not less than three years and not more than seven years.
The same penalty shall also apply to anyone who commits publicly or by publication an insult to the Sultan’s wife, crown prince, and children.
New articles have been added to the penal code with numbers (103) bis, (168) bis, and (321 bis), the text of which is as follows:
Article (103) bis
“A punishment of imprisonment for a period of not less than (3) three months and not exceeding (3) three years, and a fine of not less than RO,1000 and not more than RO5,000, or either of these two penalties will be imposed on anyone who created the country’s map, placed it on any products, jewelry, or tools produced or manufactured locally, or imported any of them, without a license from the competent authority, or used it as a trademark for the purpose of advertising or commercial publicity.”
Article (168) bis
“Whoever violates the provisions of the regulations and decisions regulating municipal activities, shall be punished with imprisonment for a period no less than 24 and not exceeding 6 six months, and a fine of no less than RO,000 and not exceeding RO5, 000, or one of these two. The two penalties are for anyone who violates the provisions of the regulations and decisions regulating municipal activities.
Article (321) bis
“Whoever deals in any organ of the human body, part of it, one of its tissues or cells for sale or purchase, whatever the nature is, shall be punished by imprisonment for a period of no less than (3) three years and not exceeding (7) seven years. The amendment states that anyone who advocated, announced, promoted, or mediated such activities will be liable to imprisonment for a period of no less than (5) five years and not exceeding (10) ten years if the offender is a practitioner of medical professions.
