The House of Representatives, on Monday, approved the General Amnesty Draft Law as amended by the Senate.

The Senate returned the draft to the deputies after they disagreed on exempting crimes against public authority, which the latter agreed to include. They also disagreed with the deputies on exempting violators of the provisions of the law of water and electricity, those that were excluded by the deputies from paying fines.

In regards to expatriates who violated the law of residence, the Senate provided them with 180 days to benefit from the general amnesty.

Furthermore, in regards to the violators of the Labor Law, the Senate agreed with the deputies, where it was decided to include them in the general amnesty, while the House of Representatives agreed on the inclusion of drug abusers.

With regard to expatriates who violated the law of residence, the Senate disagreed with the deputies, and provided only 180 days for them to benefit from the general amnesty.

The Senate agreed with the deputies to include violators of the Labor Law as well as drug abusers in the amnesty.

This was brought up in a meeting that was held by the Senate yesterday under the chairmanship of Faisal Al-Fayez and the presence of Prime Minister Omar Razzaz in addition to a number of members of the government team.

The Senate decided not to approve the inclusion of crimes against public authority, specifically articles 185 and 186 regarding resisting public officials. The Senate’s legal committee justified this decision as a preservation of the state’s prestige as well as to limit crimes of assault against government employees, where it said that the right to drop charges is not possible as such crimes are against the state and not the individual.

The Senate approved the deputies’ decision to include drug abusers in the amnesty and the non-inclusion of drug trafficking. However, it disagreed with its legal committee who did not approve the inclusion of drug users due to the increase in the number of abusers lately.