Bail Procedure in UAE

A bail is a conditional temporary release of an accused person who is awaiting a trial to complete. Bail imposes a set of restrictions on the accused to ensure that the accused will appear before the investigation team or court later, for further proceedings. The bail procedure in the UAE is quite the same, as in other countries. According to Article 111 of UAE Criminal Procedural Law, bail cannot be granted to an accused person convicted of a crime sanctioned by a death penalty or life imprisonment sentence. A bail option is applicable only when the offences committed by an accused are minor crime cases, misdemeanours, such as cheque bounce and other cases.  

 

In UAE a bail can be granted by the:

• Police, before transferring the case to the Public Prosecution;
• Public Prosecution, before transferring the case to the Court;
• The court, before issuing the judgement 

Once an accused person got arrested by the UAE police and before the transfer of the case to the court, the accused or his/ her lawyer, or any relative may submit a petition to the Public Prosecution for the release of such accused person on bail. The Public Prosecution has the authority to make a decision on granting bail throughout the stages of the investigation. The public prosecution can issue bail on certain conditions or guarantees. In addition, before granting bail, the public prosecutor can check whether the accused has been convicted previously for any offences or whether he is a party to any offences committed previously. The police, public prosecutor or the court have the discretionary power on how to grant bail to the accused. And under this discretionary power, the said authorities can order the accused to submit a personal guarantee or a financial guarantee for bail. 

 

Bail on Personal Guarantee: 

In such cases, the accused has to submit his / her passport or the passport of any third party as a guarantee for bail. If the accused himself is submitting the passport as a guarantee for bail, then the accused will be considered a self-guarantor and if the third party is submitting the passport as a guarantee for bail of the accused, then the third party will become the guarantor of the accused. In this case, the visa and passport submitted as the bail guarantee must be valid. That means a person on overstay cannot submit his passport as a bail guarantee.

 

Bail on Financial Guarantee: 

On the other hand, it refers to the payment of money submitted before the court as a guarantee for bail. This money will be refunded to the accused after the final judgement and also the guarantor will be released from the undertaking that he had signed. If the accused didn’t comply with the conditions made by the court, the amount will be forfeit by the court. In special cases, the court can seek both financial and personal guarantees for bail and also impose several other conditions to grant bail. After an accused has been released on bail, he will be given a bail document called “Qafala”, which covers the provisions of conditional bail.

 

Liabilities of Bail Guarantor: 

The bail guarantor and the accused have to sign a bail bond in order to release the accused on bail. The bail bond submitted contains the details of the accused and the charges on him as well as the details of the bail guarantor. It also defines the condition under which the accused is bailed out and the penalties if he fails to oblige with the said conditions. Upon signing the bail bond, the guarantor guarantees the presence of the accused whenever it is necessary. If the guarantor is absconded or fails to comply with the provisions of the bail then the civil and criminal liability of the accused will be taken on to the guarantor. If the accused is charged with any fines to pay, then the guarantor will be held liable to pay such amount as prescribed under the law. Thus, before getting into the position of a guarantor, he/she must assure that they are aware of the consequences in case of any default by the accused.

 

Can Bail be Revoked?

Article 115 of the UAE Criminal Procedural law governs the legal procedure for the cancellation of bail. Bail can be revoked in certain circumstances even after it has been approved or executed. The bail can be revoked; 

• If the accused breached the provisions of the bail. For example, if the accused didn’t attend the investigation or he didn’t attend any appointed meeting by the public prosecutor.
• If any new circumstances arose in the case and taking such measures is mandatory. For example, if the accused is requalified for any other crime, that disables bail release.