Arrest Order Issued by the Public Prosecution

Regardless of whether the Public Prosecution received the arrest order of the accused or not, the law gives them the right to issue their own arrest orders according to Article 101 of the Federal Law No. (35) Of 1992.

Article 101 of the same law indicates that the arrest order by the Public Prosecution would indicate the name of the accused, along with his or her profession, residence, nationality, accusation and the date of when he has to see the Public Prosecution. This would have to be signed by the Public Prosecution member and stamped with the authorized seal.

In most of these cases, Public Prosecution would issue the arrest order if the accused does not attend after he was allocated without a valid justification or it is feared that he would escape or does not have a known place of residence, or if he was caught in the act of the crime. The Public Prosecution member may issue surrender and detain order for the accused even if the event does not require pretrial detention.

Such arrest orders would be valid for only six months. However, they may be extended with approval of the Public Prosecution.

Once the accused, who is under arrest, has been referred to the Public Prosecution, generally, they do not take more than 24 hours for the investigation prior to deciding whether to release them or to place him under pretrial imprisonment order.

If an arrest order has been issued against the accused and he is caught outside the dominion of the investigating court, which might be a different Emirate than where he or she was initially arrested from, then he shall be reassigned and returned back to the Public Prosecution in the Emirate which primarily issued the warrant. This is in accordance with Article 105 of the Criminal Procedures Law.

It is important to note here that someone getting arrested does not mean that the person will stay in jail. As, in many cases, the accused would be subjected to arrest for only 48 hours and until they meet the Public Prosecution, who then decides to either release them or keep them detained until the investigation is concluded.

On the other hand, for some accused the detention period until they meet the Public Prosecution might not be more than 24 hours. If this time elapses, he might be freed according to Article 104 of the same law. Therefore, the detention administration tend to refer the accused to the Public Prosecution for questioning immediately.

However, if the accused has not been released within the first 72 hours, it is sensible to expect that the Public Prosecution has issued a pretrial imprisonment order against the accused. This will be the element for our subsequent article, which would contain advanced discussion on the matter.

Disclaimer: This article comprises broad and general information about legal materials. The material is general advice and not legal advice, and should not be treated as such. The legal information in this article is provided is extracted from the UAE Criminal Procedures Law Federal Law No. (35) Of the Year 1992 and based on our experiences as a law firm. The information provided are only guidelines. You should certainly not postpone pursuing legal advice, ignore legal advice, or begin or suspend any legal action because of information provided in this article. You must not rely on the information in this article as a substitute to legal counsel from your attorney or any other practiced professional legal services provider.This information is drafted by licensed legal practitioner and sent from Al Rowaad Advocates & Legal Consultants which is duly licensed law firm to practice law under UAE Law.

Dr. Hassan Elhais is a legal consultant in Dubai, specializing in the drafting of all statements of claim, memos and consultation on litigation of all manner.