Article 18 of the Saudi Donation Collection Law

This article addresses the fate of donations collected in a violating way, and contains three provisions:

1. Confiscation: all donations collected in violation of the provisions of the Law are confiscated.
2. The instrument of confiscation: confiscation is by judicial judgment, not by administrative decision.
3. Where the confiscated funds go: they are spent on the charitable purposes the Implementing Regulations specify, subject to the donor's condition if there is one.

The wisdom of this is that donated money left its owners with the intention of doing good, so it is not returned to whoever collected it in violation, nor is it lost, but directed to charitable purposes. Requiring the donor's condition to be taken into account preserves the will of those who donated for a specific purpose.

The article does not itself specify the charitable purposes but refers them to the Implementing Regulations, and it does not state who spends the confiscated funds.

This article comes after Article 17, which sets the penalties, including punishing a natural person who collects donations with a fine not exceeding SAR 500,000 or imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years or both, and provides that the competent court handles violations and applies the penalties. Confiscation is thus a measure added to the penalty. Article 19 follows, entitling the chief officer of the licensing authority to identify those of its staff who have law-enforcement capacity.