Article 40 of the Saudi Environment Law

This Article contains the harshest penalties in the Environment Law: imprisonment for a period not exceeding ten years and a fine not exceeding SAR 30,000,000, or either of these penalties, without prejudice to any harsher penalty provided for in another law.

It applies to two categories:

First: anyone who commits any of the acts in Article 35, which are:

• Dumping, discharging or injecting wastewater or any untreated liquid components into underground wells, any environmental medium, or rock outcrop areas of aquifers, for any reason whatsoever.
• Marine vessels dumping or discharging pollutants resulting from ballast water, cargo residues, waste, liquid components, and the dissolution of anti-fouling substances.
• Disposing of hazardous waste in environmental media.
• Trading in endangered wildlife and their derivatives and products, or killing or hunting them.

Second: anyone who commits, for the second time or more within a year of the previous time, in violation of the provisions of the Law, one of two acts:

• Cutting trees, shrubs, grasses or plants, or uprooting them, moving them, stripping their bark, leaves or any part of them, or moving or scraping away their soil, or trading in them.
• Killing any live wild animals in violation of Article 26, which prohibits killing or harming them except in specific cases set out in the regulations.

This means the first occurrence of these two acts does not fall under this Article; only repetition within a year does.

Under Article 41, the competent court considers these violations and imposes their penalties; it may order confiscation, hold a suspected vessel for up to 90 days, and impose a daily fine, doubled fines on repetition and publication. Article 39 provides that the jurisdiction of the violation committees is without prejudice to Article 41. Because the penalty may reach imprisonment, anyone accused of one of these acts may wish to consult a lawyer who specializes in environmental and criminal matters.