The Crime of Infection Between Intentionality and Error

Is Infecting Someone With COVID a Crime?

Recently, there has been a lot of talk about the Coronavirus, and understandably so. This epidemic affected the entire world, including global markets, their economies, and their overall stability. To slow down the spread of infection, many regulations were passed to criminalize the intentional transmission of deadly epidemics.

Laws have made it a violation of public health, which is an integral part of public order. Based on the above, we decided to address the systemic dimensions of this criminal behavior, including the position of the Saudi regulator towards it.

The Legality of Restricting Intentional Infection

The job of keeping public order relies on three main areas: comfort, security, and public health. This responsibility belongs to the state’s administrative system.

Public Control Agencies

Public control agencies work to keep public order safe from any actions that could disrupt it. The Ministry of Health plays a major role in this effort. Many efforts have focused on maintaining the public health axis. For this, we are grateful.

However, authorities transferred this jurisdiction to the criminal investigation officers once the crime of disturbing public health occurred. They are responsible for finding the people who commit crimes. They also collect the evidence needed to bring charges.

Why is Intentional Infection Illegal?

From this standpoint, we see that intentionally infecting any dangerous disease can be considered a criminal act. This is because it disrupts public order and causes harm to others that may lead to the loss of their lives.

We believe this act is a major crime. It requires an arrest under the Minister of the Interior’s Resolution No. 2000. This includes assault on anything less than one’s self if it resulted in an injury from which the recovery period exceeds fifteen days, with the holder of the private right not waiving.

Interpretation of Saudi Law For Intentional Infections

However, the highest authority in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is Islamic Sharia, which criminalizes any act that threatens the lives of others, whether intentionally or accidentally. In principle, there is no harm or harm, and necessity does not invalidate the right of others, and discretion has its say according to the circumstances of each individual case.

For example, transmitting infection with premeditation may be considered murder by causation by analogy to the ruling of murder by poisoning if it leads to the loss of the life of the victim. It may be a crime that is less than self-defeating and requires compensation if it results in a permanent disability.

However, in the event that the victim recovers from the infection and does not suffer a permanent disability, he has the right to compensation for what happened to him, such as treatment expenses, loss of job, or even the moral damages that befell him. Although the judicial applications for compensation for moral injury in the Kingdom are limited, they must be noted.

Other Interpretations of Law

After extrapolating Arab criminal legislation, in particular Iraqi law and Egyptian law, and comparing them to their Gulf counterparts, we found several things.

Iraqi Law

Iraqi Law No. (111) of 1969 states in Article 368 that anyone who spreads a harmful disease can be imprisoned. The prison term cannot exceed a certain limit. For example, the term is three years if it leads to death or permanent disability. In this case, the perpetrator may be punished with the penalty prescribed for the crime of battery leading to death and the crime of permanent disability.

These punishments are distinguished by criminalizing the intentional infection of a serious illness. Then, there is a separate text distinguishing it from all other crimes of assault on the self or below the self.

Emirati Legislation

As the Emirati legislation, Federal Law No. (3) of 1987 with Article 348, stipulates imprisonment and a fine for anyone who endangers people’s lives or health, and decided imprisonment only if any harm, whatever its type, results from this criminal act.

The Qatari Penal Code

The Qatari Penal Code follows a similar idea. Article 252 of Law No. (11) of 2004 states that anyone who spreads a dangerous disease can face up to fifteen years in prison. If this act causes someone’s death, the punishment can be death.

The Bahraini Penal Code

As for the Bahraini Penal Code, it did not single out a text criminalizing this behavior. Rather, it included it in crimes of assault on a person less than oneself, when the text was stated to include any means that leads to illness or inability to perform personal tasks for a period exceeding twenty days. If the seriousness is less than that, the prison sentence is reduced to a year, and the absolute is used as a general word.

Omani Legislation

The Omani legislator did something similar in Articles (255.254). Intentional infection can fall under unintentional murder and harm, but he did well in using the description “negligence or lack of caution.” He replaced the standard of exercising a person’s usual care with criminal intent.

Egyptian Legislation

As for the Egyptian legislator, it did not single out an explicit text to criminalize this act. Instead, it adjusted based on the situation of each case. It considered crimes against oneself and lesser offenses.

It also looked at compensation for financial and emotional harm. This was done according to public justice principles. The Kuwaiti legislator used this method.

Contact Khalaf Bandar | International Advisors PLLC For Help

When businesses can spread disease, it’s important to know the laws about intentionally and accidentally infecting someone. Your business may be held responsible if you are not careful. The business law attorneys at Khalaf Bandar | International Advisors PLLC can help. Schedule a consultation to discuss your case.