Justice Ministry signs contract with MTN to serve summons by SMS

Aug 04, 2013

Damascus, (SANA)- The Ministry of Justice on Sunday signed a contract with the MTN telecommunications company to allow using Short Message Service (SMS) in serving the summons upon defendants.

Justice Minister Najm Hamad al-Ahmad clarified during signing the contract that this step came in implementation of Legislative Decree no. 25 for 2013 which provided for allowing the act of serving a summons through sending SMS and emails.

He pointed out that this measure makes Syria among the first countries on the regional level that use SMS in service of process.

He noted that the new move will be first applied in Damascus and its countryside and later in the other provinces, adding that there will be a free telephone line through which citizens can make sure that a summons was actually served upon them.

Al-Ahmad said this experiment is part of the steps taken by the Justice Ministry towards completely automating judicial and administrative work.