Article 19 of the Saudi Anti-Concealment Law

This is a procedural article concerning the Implementing Regulations of the Law, which are meant by the word "the Regulations" in Article 1. It contains three provisions:

1. Who issues them: The Minister of Commerce, in agreement with the Minister of Interior.
2. The deadline: Within 180 days of the date the Law is published.
3. When they take effect: From the date the Law takes effect, so the Regulations neither precede the Law nor lag behind it in application.

The importance of this article is that provisions of the Law leave some of their details to the Regulations. Article 18, for example, leaves it to the Regulations to set the procedures for reporting offenses and violations, the controls for paying informants' rewards, and the mechanism for dividing them if there are several informants. To understand the practical application of those provisions, one therefore needs to refer to the Implementing Regulations alongside the text of the Law.

This article is linked to Article 20, which provides that the Law takes effect after 180 days from the date of its publication in the Official Gazette. The period for issuing the Regulations therefore matches the period before the Law takes effect, so that the Regulations are ready when the Law begins to apply.