Banks can’t cut loan installment from employee bonus — SAMA

February 6, 2015

Jeddah, Feb 6: The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) has ordered all Saudi banks not to touch the two-month salary bonus granted by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman to all Saudi government and military employees, retirees and students.

According to Talat Hafiz, secretary-general of Media and Banking Awareness Committee of Saudi Banks, this procedure will protect Saudis who are eligible to take advantage of the royal decree, but have been required to pay bank loans.

“SAMA’s instructions are clear to all Saudi banks. There are several Saudi state employees who are required to pay bank loans. At the same time, the two-month bonus is considered a gift from King Salman to Saudis and banks do not have the right to deduct anything from these benefits,” Hafiz told Arab News.

Most Saudis prefer to work in a limited number of major Saudi companies, such as Saudi Aramco, SABIC and other large national employers that have a good reputation with local banks, making it easier for employees at these companies to secure loans.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf on Wednesday informed all government departments that his ministry has started providing them with additional funds to implement the royal decree.

Al-Assaf also instructed the ministries and departments to pay the two-month bonus to all the retirees including those who have been allowed to take long leave because of pregnancy or disease.

“The bonus shall be paid on the basis of the latest basic salary while the two-month stipend shall be given to only students of government universities and colleges,” he said.

Referring to government employees who pursue higher studies abroad on scholarship, Al-Assaf said they would be treated like scholarship students in foreign countries and paid only two-month remuneration. He also instructed ministries to avoid double payment. “The bonus payment should not be linked with the timing of the payment of usual salary,” the minister said.

The total bonus for government employees, retirees and students would amount to SR110 billion.

Fadiya Al-Fawaz, an expert in social responsibility programs, said major Saudi companies would cut down their allocations for their CSR programs in 2015 as a result of the payment of bonus. She said fall in oil prices would also affect CSR programs for social welfare this year.

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UN condemns Israeli regime’s ‘organized torture’ against Palestinians

News Network

November 30,2025

The United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) has condemned the Israeli regime for enforcing a policy of “organized torture” against Palestinians.

In a report published on Friday, CAT stated that the occupying regime enforces a deliberate policy of “organized and widespread torture and ill-treatment” against Palestinian abductees, particularly since October 7, 2023, when Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza.

The committee expressed “deep concern over repeated severe beatings, dog attacks, electrocution, water-boarding, use of prolonged stress positions [and] sexual violence” inflicted on Palestinians.

Palestinian prisoners were degraded by “being made to act like animals or being urinated on,” systematically denied medical care, and subjected to excessive restraints, “in some cases resulting in amputation,” the report added.

CAT also condemned the routine application of “unlawful combatants law” to justify the prolonged detention without trial of thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children.

More than 10,000 Palestinians, including women and children, are currently held in Israeli prisons, according to Palestinian and international human rights groups, with 3,474 Palestinians in “administrative detention,” meaning they are imprisoned without trial for indefinite periods.

The report highlighted the “high proportion of children who are currently detained without charge or on remand,” noting that while Israel sets the age of criminal responsibility at 12, even younger children have been abducted.

Children designated as security prisoners face severe restrictions on family contact, may be subjected to solitary confinement, and are denied access to education, in clear violation of international law.

The committee further suggested that Israel’s policies across the Occupied Territories constitute collective torture against the Palestinian population.

“A range of policies adopted by Israel in the course of its continued unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading living conditions for the Palestinian population,” the report said.

On Thursday, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas condemned the systematic killing and torture of Palestinian abductees in Israeli prisons, urging international action to halt these abuses.

Citing human rights data, Hamas stated that 94 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli prisons since the start of Tel Aviv’s genocidal war on Gaza.

“This reflects an organized criminal approach that has turned these prisons into direct killing grounds to eliminate our people,” the resistance movement said.

Hamas called on the international community, the UN, and human rights organizations to immediately pressure Israel to end crimes against prisoners and uphold their rights as guaranteed by all international conventions and norms.

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