Friday 28 / June / 2024
Muscat: Disclosure of the contents of classified company documents could lead to a jail term of up to five years, Oman’s Public Prosecution has said.
“The provisions of this law also apply to people employed on a temporary basis, or for the duration of a specific contract,” said Dr Rashid bin Obaid Al Kaabi, Assistant to the Public Prosecutor.
“Keeping certain aspects of one’s job secret is not only related to the period of the employee’s time spent at his job, but if his relationship with his employer ends for some reason, the information obtained by him is confidential, until the classification of secrecy is removed from this document or the confidentiality of the work he has undertaken ends."
“The law criminalises even transferring the content of the document and not just leaking it,” he explained. “Keeping the classified document with oneself is also a crime, because the legislation requires everyone who obtains a classified document to take it to the institution that created it or to the nearest police station or even to the Public Prosecution.”
Al Kaabi said: “The public prosecution can work on investigating how these documents were leaked, without waiting for any communication from any party, as disclosing such documents is a crime that constitutes acting against the public interest. The public prosecution acts on his own, but sometimes, we need the party that created the document to verify if it is real and classified, or whether it is forged
Al Kaabi was speaking about the penalties of leaking confidential documents during a monthly programme with Shabiba FM, the radio arm of Al Shabiba, Times of Oman’s sister Arabic publication.
The Omani law classifies documents into four categories according to the importance of the information contained in them, and determined by the origin of the document.
Top secret documents are those which contain information that when disclosed, may lead to serious damages to the internal or external security of the state, or to the benefit of any country or other entity that would constitute or is likely to pose a threat to the Sultanate.
It includes all plans and details of military operations and any related information, official political information related to international relations, agreements and treaties and all that relates to them, discussions, studies and preparatory work, as well as information related to the work, measures and organisation of the security and intelligence services and their equipment, and finally, information related to weapons and ammunition or any indication of the security forces’ defensive strength.
Secondly, documents are considered ‘secret’ if they contain information whose disclosure threatens the safety of the state or causes damage to its interests or is of benefit to any country or other entity, in addition to information related to the location of the storage of defence or economic materials, as well as information concerning the security associated with these, whose disclosure would have a negative impact on the morale of citizens.
The third degree of classification is called ‘limited confidentiality’ for documents containing information, which, if leaked, could lead to administrative or economic difficulties for the state, or benefit any country or other entity, in addition to information that harms a person’s or organisation’s public reputation.
The last degree of secrecy is called ‘confidential’, and is to do with those documents that contain information that is not preferable to disclose, in order to preserve the interests of the state, and includes information that relates to financial and economic affairs. Disclosing this information could harm the interest of the state, or contain matter related to administrative or personnel affairs of organisations.
Speaking about the penalties associated with the illegal disclosure of documents, the Assistant of the Public Prosecutor said, “When someone commits an act that is prohibited, there must be a penalty. Because of the importance of these documents, a penalty of up to five years has been imposed for the disclosure for documents classified as top secret and secret.
“In terms of the third and fourth degree of classification, the punishment is for two years, with a fine of OMR500,” added Al Kaabi. “Whoever leaks an unclassified document is punished in accordance with the penalty for disclosing company secrets."
”The government has realised since long importance of the documents, which might result in serious damage to the state as a result of its disclosure. The first law to protect them was issued in 1975 in the name of the Job Secrets and Protected Places Law,” said Dr Rashid bin Obaid Al Kaabi, assistant to the Public Prosecutor.
He pointed out: “With the development of state and society, the law issued in 1975 was replaced by a new law in 2011, which is called the Classification of Documents and Organizing of Protected Places Law. The state provides guarantees to safeguard members of society, by ensuring that public employees who work in the country follow their duties. One of their most important duties is to safeguard the secrets of the company they work for.”
“The employee, by virtue of his work, has access to many secrets that he must to protect from leakage, and he must consider this a service to his country,” added Al Kaabi.
”The law does not just deal with employees in the administrative apparatus. There are also legal articles in the Penal Code that criminalize those who leak any legal document, be they employees or non-employees.”
Al Kaabi also explained what the law considered to be a company secret, so that there would be little ambiguity over what it covered.
“Company secrets are the decisions any employee hears of, and the instructions he receives, because of his job,” he explained. “These are of two types: either these company secrets are so because they are yet to be revealed to the public, or have been told to the employee, by the company, in a confidential manner.
“These include all documents, whether classified or not,” he added. “A document is not just a written paper but rather its copies and its previous drafts, in addition to associated records, pictures, films, maps, and computer data.”
On the motives for this act, the Assistant of the Public Prosecutor said, “Sometimes the intention of leaking documents is to cause damage, in addition to publishing news in advance, so as to share new information with people. Social media is able to serve people, but sometimes it is used to harm human beings.
“There are those who seek to obtain an advantage without checking the credibility of their information, or while forgetting that releasing this type of publication may constitute a crime or may defame a person, and it is unacceptable to do so, particularly if based on false information,” added Al Kaabi. “The releasing of some kinds of information might also affect our country and society, and a person must have a sense of responsibility towards these two.”
In conclusion, Rashid Al Kaabi called for using social media for good, and for every citizen and resident to devote part of their time to reading the laws of the land, because ignorance of the law is not an excuse for breaking it. He also stressed that awareness-raising efforts carried out by Public Prosecution are at the heart of its duty towards protecting individuals from falling under the risk of legal accountability.
