This formal ceremony, considered a long-standing judicial tradition, where the first President of the Court of Cassation and its General Prosecutor of the King present the statistics of issued judgments and decisions, and cite the jurisprudence adopted during the year, and outline the efforts of the Kingdom’s judges, is an occasion to objectively assess the quality of judicial services and a chance to showcase the strategic objectives and future projects of the Council in order to achieve judicial quality and efficiency, that best serve the interest of citizens, and strengthen the justice in service of major development goals.

In this context, the first President of the Court of Cassation affirmed that the Kingdom’s courts were able to, despite the continuation of the Corona pandemic and its disturbing variants, render 3,858,046 judgements in various cases. That is 100.02% of the number of new cases registered in 2021, which is 3,857,389 cases. Even though courts were able to achieve this great percentage, 753,315 cases were pending at the end of the year. This represents 16 % of pending cases during the year, which amounted to 4,611,236 cases. This number of pending cases is unprecedented.

The first President commended the efforts of the Kingdom’s judges, as they increased the number of judgements they issued by 44.40% in comparison to 2020. Due to their effectiveness, they were able to overcome the backlog of cases of 2021, which saw an increased by 38% in comparison to the previous year.

He also underlined that the number of pending cases increased by 34% in 2020, which calls for supporting the judiciary by adding more judges in the coming years. For the role of the judiciary is not restricted to rendering judgements within a reasonable time, but most importantly, issue fair judgments that are studied carefully, which requires giving each judge a minimum number of cases according to their abilities, and providing them with the necessary time to properly study cases and documents before rendering judgements.

The first President reported that the Kingdom’s courts held during the past year: 19,700 remote hearings in which more than 425,000 cases were heard and a number of detainees appeared virtually for more than 494,760 times. These procedures enabled judges to issue judgements on 145,851 cases, that is 34% of the cases judged remotely.

With regard to the judicial work of the Court of Cassation, the first President added that in 2021, a total of 90,948 cases were brought before its chambers, which represents 2% of pending cases in courts. Despite the fact that the justices were able to issue about 45,304 decisions this year at a rate of 300 decisions each counselor, which is an unprecedented number representing 92.61% of the 48,919 registered cases, the court has nonetheless resumed its work at the beginning of the current year (2022) with 45,644 cases left undecided from previous years. This underlines the challenges inherent to their managements.

On a different note, the first President of the Court of Cassation, President Delegate of the Supreme Council of the Judicial Power, highlighted that the Council adopted its first strategic plan for 2021-2026. This strategy is aimed at completing the establishment of the structures of the Council and framing its relations with judges, its surroundings, and justice institutions, as well as contributing to judicial efficiency, and its role in upholding judicial ethics and training judicial officials and judges in order to preserve an independent and partial judiciary, imbued with the best moral values, integrity, and honor, and preserve the principles governing the judicial profession, as provided for by the Constitution and the two organic laws regulating the Supreme Council of the Judicial Power and  the statute for Judges.

He also discussed the launch an application aimed at publishing the jurisprudence of the Court of Cassation on the website, which took place in conjunction with the formal ceremony of the inauguration of the new judicial year. This long-awaited initiative by judges, lawyers, and other interested parties, is being realized today in compliance with the directives of his Majesty the King. Its purpose is to render jurisprudence available to all, free of charge, for it is deemed a framework for achieving judicial security and disseminating the trends of the Court of Cassation.

The President-Delegate also added that in order to participate in reforming judges’ conduct, ensuring their commitment to professional ethics, and warning them about professional non-compliance breach of duty, the decisions of the Supreme Council of the Judicial Power on the disciplinary matter will be published in the space designated for judges on the Council’s website. This will contribute to raise their awareness of professional responsibility and ethical obligations, which will reflect positively on their adherence to the code of ethics and their respect for the professional obligations.

For his part, the Prosecutor-General of the King to the Court of Cassation, President of the Public Prosecution, affirmed that 2021 was a remarkable and exceptional year for the Court of Cassation, during which its counselors and clerks put considerable effort and were diligent in the performance of their duties in order to preserve the previous gains and reduce the backlog of cases, of which 45,304 cases were adjudicated, an increase of 4743 cases compared to 2020.

The Prosecutor-General of the King added that if Covid-19 affected the new registered cases in 2020 which stood at 31,448 new cases, that is twenty thousand cases less than those registered in 2019, which amounted to 51,591 cases, 2021, on the other hand, registered 48,919 new cases of which 27,139 were criminal cases, surpassing 2020 by 17,471 cases.

The Prosecutor-General added that in 2021, 45,304 cases were referred to the public prosecution of the Court of Cassation for analysis and presentation of written conclusions. This figure equals the number of decided cases, with a yearly average of more than 1400 memoranda per assistant general attorney.

As to the pre-trial detention issue, the Prosecutor-General of the King at the Court of Cassation confirmed that what marked the past two years in regard to assessing the criminal policy on crime prevention, is the remarkable rise in pre-trial detention rates which reached 46% in the first half of 2021, due to the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic and the refusal of a number of pre-trial detainees to be tried virtually, which reflected negatively on resolving their cases in addition to the lack of the adoption of unified standards in issuing arrest warrants in some minor crimes. To this end, the Presidency of the Public Prosecution has coordinated efforts with officials in charge of public prosecution offices in an attempt to try and rationalize pre-trial detention, and organized for this purpose five regional training courses for the benefit of 619 judges and officials of the Public Prosecution, in addition to a group of investigative judges and presidents of sections that adjudicate detainees’ cases, as well as presidents of bar associations, judicial police officers, judicial clerks and representatives of the General Delegation for Prison Administration and reintegration.

The President of the Public Prosecution stressed that, at the end of 2021, these efforts made it possible to reduce the pre-trial detention rate to 42% of the total prison population of 88,941 prisoners, after it had reached about 46%. Hope lies in deploying efforts to continue rationalizing pre-trial detention and adjudicating its cases in a perfect balance between combating crime and ensuring the rights of suspects, while respecting the presumption of innocence.

The President of the Public Prosecution revealed that the public prosecutions at the Kingdom’s courts registered a total of 522,883 new complaints in 2021, of which 23,155 complaints were registered by the public prosecutions at the Courts of Appeal, while the First Instance Courts registered 499,728 complaints, thus forming a total increase of 24%, compared to the number of complaints in 2020 which amounted to 421,048 complaints.

Furthermore, The President of the Public Prosecution added that the joint efforts of the prosecutors and their staff, and the judicial police tasked with carrying out investigations, led to the closing of 517,460 complaints from the total of 679,080 pending complaints in 2021, thus achieving a completion rate of approximately 77%, far higher than the 72% registered in 2020, which is considered a good percentage if we recall the special circumstances that our country has experienced and is still experiencing after the outbreak of the Corona virus.

On the other hand, the first President of the Court of Cassation gave permission to the judicial officials of the Courts of Appeal to launch the judicial year in their jurisdictions on Monday and Tuesday, January 31 and February 1, 2022.

Following the official launch of the new judicial year 2022, a number of presentations were given on the strategic plan of the Supreme Council of the Judicial Power for the period 2021-2026, on the application made for disseminating the decisions of the Court of Cassation, on the publication of disciplinary decisions in the judges’ space, and a presentation on the new website of the Supreme Council of the Judicial Power. The ceremony culminated in the distribution of decorations bestowed upon the judges of the Court of Cassation by His Majesty the King, may God assist Him.