The Effectiveness of the Omani Criminal Policy in Facing the Corona Pandemic
Dr. Nizar Hamad Qeshta
Assistant Professor of Criminal Law
Faculty of Law, Eastern University
Sultanate of Oman
Abstract:
The Omani legislator has regulated the fight against infectious diseases in various laws which started from 1973 with the issuance of the first law to combat infectious diseases stated in Decree No. 8/1973. The most important of these diseases was the Corona 19 pandemic, the combat of which was regulated by the Omani legislator whether it was in the Infectious Diseases Law or in the Omani Penal Code. The question in this paper relates to the extent to which balance is achieved between protecting the public freedoms of citizens and protecting their lives and safety from the threat of spreading infectious diseases. There is also a question of: “to what extent did the Omani criminal policy go in facing the Corona pandemic?”
The researcher relied on the descriptive and analytical approach in discussing the texts regulating infectious diseases. The results of the research showed that the Omani Legislature did not declare a state of emergency to deal with the pandemic, and that criminal responsibility for transmitting infectious diseases to others is a crime, since premeditated murder and manslaughter require that the contagion carrier knows or suspects that he had been infected.
Accordingly, the researcher recommended that the Omani legislator should intervene by issuing a new organization aimed at punishing everyone who caused the spread of infection to others, with the possibility of the punishment being aggravated according to the result that happened, and also considering the extent of the intention or lack thereof, which varies in the case of more than one person being infected or the death of more than one patient.
Key words: infectious diseases, corona, infected, transmission of infection, notification.