Anti-Bribery Law

Article 1

  • Any public servant who solicits, accepts, or receives for himself or for others a gift or payment of any sort, or a promise thereof, as a consideration for performing any of his office duties or an alleged office duty, even if the action taken is legitimate, shall be considered a bribee and shall be punished by imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years and a fine not exceeding 1,000,000 riyals, or by either penalty. The public servant shall be incriminated regardless of his intent not to perform the promised act.

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Article 2

  • Any public servant who solicits, accepts, or receives for himself or for others a gift or payment of any sort, or a promise thereof, as a consideration for not performing an office duty or an alleged office duty, even if such inaction is legitimate, shall be considered a bribee and shall be punished by the same penalty set forth in Article 1 of this Law. The public servant shall be incriminated regardless of his intent not to perform the promised act.

Article 3

  • Any public servant who solicits, accepts, or receives for himself or for others a gift or payment of any sort, or a promise thereof, as a consideration for breaching his office duties or as a reward for the same, even in the absence of a prior agreement, shall be considered a bribee and shall be punished by the same penalty set forth in Article 1 of this Law.

Article 4

  • Any public servant who breaches his office duties by performing or refraining from performing any of such duties as a result of a plea, recommendation, or intercession, shall be considered a bribee and shall be punished by imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years and a fine not exceeding 100,000 riyals, or by either penalty

Article 5

Previous Amendments

Any person who requests for himself or for others, or accepts or takes a promise or gift to use real or alleged influence to obtain or attempt to obtain from any public authority a work, order, decision, obligation, license, supply agreement, job, service, or benefit of any kind, shall be considered as corrupt and shall be punished with the penalty stipulated in Article One of this law.

Article 6

  • Any public servant not covered by the other provisions of this Law, who solicits, accepts, or receives for himself or for others a gift or a payment of any sort, or a promise thereof, by virtue of his position to follow up a case-file at any government agency, shall be punished by imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years and a fine not exceeding 50,000 riyals, or by either penalty. The same penalty shall apply to any person who gives, offers, or promises to give a gift for the aforementioned purpose as well as to the mediator in any of these cases.

Article 7

  • Any person who uses force, violence, or threat against any public servant to perform an illegal action or to prevent such servant from performing any of his office duties, shall be punished by the same penalty set forth in Article 1 of this Law.

Article 8

Previous Amendments

For the purposes of this law, the following are considered as Public Servants:
1 - Anyone who works for the state or for any public legal entity, whether they are employed on a permanent or temporary basis.
2 - The arbitrator or expert appointed by the government or any authority with judicial jurisdiction.
3 - Anyone assigned by a government entity or any other administrative authority to perform a specific task.
4 - Anyone who works for companies or individual institutions that manage and operate public facilities or maintain them, or provide a public service, as well as anyone who works for joint-stock companies and companies in which the government participates in the capital, and individual institutions that engage in banking activities.
5 - The chairpersons and members of the boards of directors of the companies mentioned in paragraph four of this article.
6 - Employees and members of public benefit non-profit organizations, as well as their chairpersons and board members.
7 - Employees of international institutions and organizations in relation to the conduct of international commercial transactions.

Article 9

Previous Amendments

Anyone who offers a bribe or promises one, and it is not accepted, shall be punished with imprisonment for a period not exceeding ten years and a fine not exceeding one million Riyals, or with one of these two penalties.

Article 9 bis (1)

Previous Amendments

Any person who promises, offers, or grants a gift to any individual working in non-profit organizations, cooperative societies, private companies, or professional bodies in any capacity, whether for the benefit of that person or for others, to perform a duty of their job or to refrain from performing a duty of their job, which constitutes a breach of their professional obligations, shall be considered as bribing, and shall be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years, or with a fine not exceeding five hundred thousand Riyals, or with both.

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