Article 25 of the Saudi Emergency Law

This article sets a short period for deciding the actions described in Article 24, namely annulment actions against decisions relating to applying emergency orders, including decisions relating to the validity of arrest, imprisonment, house arrest, confiscation, taking property into possession, or suspending or restricting an activity.

The rule: the competent administrative court must decide those actions within no more than 15 days.

Start of the period: from the date the action is registered, not from the date the contested decision was issued nor from the date the request was submitted.

The qualification: this is subject to completing the procedural requirements relating to hearing these actions. The period does not mean skipping the procedures required to hear the action, and the article does not state what these requirements are.

The reason for this period is clear: the decisions covered by the article may affect a person's liberty, such as arrest and house arrest, or livelihood, such as suspension of an activity. A state of emergency is temporary by nature, so if the action took long to hear, the judgment might lose its usefulness once the state of emergency has ended.

Note that this period concerns deciding the action before the administrative court. As for appeal and cassation, Article 24 provides that they are permitted in accordance with the provisions set out in the regulations. Article 26 follows, setting the period after which these actions are not heard, which is 60 days from the end of the state of emergency, except in cases of forgery or an excuse proved to the court.

Anyone who wants to file an annulment action against a decision issued in application of an emergency order can consult a lawyer who specializes in administrative cases to complete its procedural requirements.