Article 1 of the Saudi Classified Information Penal Law

This article sets out the basic concepts on which the Penal Law on Dissemination and Disclosure of Classified Information and Documents is built, and consists of three paragraphs:

1. Classified documents (a): containers of all kinds that hold classified information whose disclosure would harm the State's national security, interests, policies or rights, whether the State's various bodies produced them or received them. The phrase "containers of all kinds" means that what counts is the content of the document, not its form.
2. Classified information (b): what an employee obtains or learns by virtue of his job, information whose disclosure would harm the State's national security, interests, policies or rights.
3. The regulation on classified documents and its lists (c): issued by the National Center for Documents and Archives in coordination with the relevant bodies, specifying the names of these documents, their degrees of secrecy and their subjects.

The criterion common to both definitions is the effect of disclosure: that it would harm the State's national security, interests, policies or rights. As for the practical details, that is, which documents are considered classified and what their degree of secrecy is, the text left these to the regulation the Center issues, without stating its content.

Article 2 builds on these two definitions, prohibiting any public employee or person treated as one, even after his service ends, from publishing any classified document or disclosing any classified information he obtained or learned by virtue of his job whose publication or disclosure is still prohibited.

To assess a particular situation, it is advisable to consult a lawyer specializing in criminal matters.