Article 10 bis of the Saudi Travel Document Law

This article was added to the Law by Royal Decree No. (M/11) dated 18/1/1443 AH, and concerns classifying violations and setting a penalty for each:

• The body: the Implementing Regulations determine the classification of violations of the provisions of the Law and the Regulations, and the penalty for each violation.
• The ceiling: the penalties the Regulations determine may not exceed the penalties provided for in Article 10.
• Classification criteria: four things are taken into account:
  1. The nature of each violation.
  2. Its gravity.
  3. The aggravating and mitigating circumstances of it.
  4. The cases of its repetition.

Article 10 provides a penalty of a fine or a travel ban, or both, for violations including: changing the information in a passport or laissez-passer by an incompetent party, changing the photograph, negligence leading to loss, enabling another person to use the passport or selling or pledging it, using another person's passport, leaving or entering other than through the ports or without a document except for an acceptable excuse, and violating any provision of the Law and its Regulations.

The benefit of this article is that the penalty is not uniform for all violations but is graduated according to the type of violation and its seriousness, circumstances and repetition, within what Article 10 provides. Article 11 follows, regulating the committee that considers violations and the way to file a grievance. Anyone accused of a violation can consult a lawyer who specializes in administrative cases.