Charity box thief jailed, ordered to do community service in Oman

Energy Sunday 21/October/2018 21:40 PM
By: Times News Service
Charity box thief jailed, ordered to do community service in Oman

Muscat: A person, who was arrested for stealing money from a mosque’s charity box, was recently sentenced to one month in jail by a court in Izki.
The suspect was also given three hours of community service for a month every Friday, which includes cleaning of the mosque where he stole the charity box, according to the Criminal Court of Izki.
Such community service of cleaning a mosque is one-of-its- kind in the country.
The incident occurred after the Izki Police Station received a report stating that the accused broke into a mosque and stole the charity box and fled the scene.
A judge at the court said, “The CCTV footage identified the identity of the accused, which led to his arrest. The culprit admitted to his crime and his accomplice. His accomplice who is a juvenile delinquent was put at a juvenile centre.”
Article 57 of the new Omani Penal Code provides supplementary penalties, including the commissioning of a social service.
In addition, the convict can be jailed for one month if the defendant does not comply with the public service sentence.
In February, the Primary Court in Salalah issued a first-of-its-kind community service sentence to a number of defendants. The court sentenced the convicts to sweep and clean roads in the wilayat of Salalah.
“The Court sentenced a number of defendants to ... sweeping and cleaning the roads for four hours a day, for a month, in addition to their original sentence.”
In July, four Gulf nationals were sentenced to community service for reckless driving in Salalah, as Oman’s second community service this year.
In addition to their original sentence, the defendants had to do farming and planting in Salalah for four hours every day for three months under the supervision of the Public Prosecution and the Royal Oman Police.
In September, two men who were arrested for cross-dressing had been sentenced to four years in jail and fined OMR3,000 by a court in Salalah.