الملخص الإنجليزي
The Omani legislature has recently introduced community service penalty
by Article (57/ K) of the Penal Code, to keep pace with the development of
international standards regarding punishment and its objectives, since due to the
negative effects of short-term penalties, modern penal systems have tended to adopt
more effective alternatives in rehabilitation and reform, the most important of which
is the «community service penalty», which became widespread due to its social and
economic importance.
This study discusses the gaps in Article (57/ K) of the Omani Penal Code,
which vary greatly from what is established in international conventions and
comparative legislations, as it neglected to provide the essential provisions for
implementing community service penalty, such as the scope of its application,
its term, the type of services ordered, and the authority supervising its
implementation. All these shortages caused difficulty for courts to apply this
uncommon penalty, thus various contradictory judgments have been issued,
which sparked a wide legal debate about the effectiveness and legality of
community penalty.
The study concluded that in the light of the severe legislative deficiency that
Article (57/ K) suffers from, the criminal courts will probably continue to suffer
from resorting such Article in combating the criminal phenomenon, that contradicts
the current social and economic policy and the official desire to achieve financial
abundance for the state. Furthermore, as the convicts will be sentenced with different
type and amount of community penalty, the legitimacy of such punishment is
questionable. Consequently, legislative intervention is urgently required to complete
the missing provisions of Article (57/ K) and reform the community service penalty
in the Sultanate.
