Saturday 19 / July / 2025
Muscat: Nearly 700 detainees were released by good Samaritans and the efforts of the Oman Lawyers Association between April 11 and July 1 as part of the sixth Fak Kurba initiative.
Dr. Mohammed Al Zadjali, Shura Council member and Chairman of the Oman Lawyers Association, told Times of Oman, “We have covered 673 cases so far this year, and we are still receiving donations. Two weeks from now, when the process ends, there may be around 700 people who have been released.”
According to Al Zadjali, the project worked to help release people who have been detained for court cases and have a pending payment of no more than OMR2,000. Older detainees with a smaller pending payment were prioritised and these have all been cleared
to date.
Al Zadjali told Times of Oman: “To begin with, we covered all the cases of detainees referred by the courts and currently being held pending a payment of under OMR1,000 and OMR2,000.”
“We have dealt with all the cases that fulfilled this condition,” he added. “However, these cases are always taking place and so there will be more people who need assistance in the future.”
The 2019 initiative succeeded in releasing 673 detainees from 40 jurisdictions spread across the various governorates of the Sultanate. The scheme, which has been running for three months, received approximately OMR508,220 in donations which members of the association have hailed as an excellent amount.
A statement by the Lawyer’s association added that with the scheme, Oman “has proved its love and passion for volunteering and civil service.”
The statement added, “The initiative witnessed the participation of a wide number of individuals and institutions from the various governorates of the Sultanate to clearly reflect the full faith of society in the noble message borne by this humanitarian initiative, which is to spread love among people and bring the insolvent prisoners back to their families.”
“That’s why the idea of this social initiative has been quickly adopted, helping humanitarian cases that are close to all of us : those of a generous heart led by fate to face a court action or a bankrupt put behind bars and forced to leave his family and loved ones. Also, there are some imprisoned who were the victims of the illusions and promises of a rich and pleasant life by a savage consumer culture.”
The first edition of Fak Kurba was launched in 2012 by ten Omani lawyers, who together contributed to the release of 44 detainees from Civil, Commercial, Sharia, or Labour cases. Since those first successes, the number of released detainees has leapt up in subsequent years.
The statement added that this year, “The Omani Lawyers Association formed a committee to sort through the cases referred to them, according to priority and the humanitarian situation of the insolvents. The amount of OMR2,000 was set as the maximum amount available for each case. We approached private institutions and individuals to support this charitable work, through various means.”
“We would like to highlight several noteworthy events of this 2019 edition. Firstly, one benefactor, for the third year in a row, has financed the release of all the insolvents in Al Dhahira courts who met the legal conditions of Fak Kurba, which was 24 cases this year. Another special moment was the action of citizens from the wilayat of Barka, whose donations led to the release of 27 insolvents registered in local courts. Also, several social networking groups have been created on WhatsApp, covering a number of cases. A group of benefactors raising funds was also created among Omantel employees, helping to release a good number of insolvents. Last but not least, Bank Muscat’s donation allowed the release of 220 detainees,” the statement added.
