Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Your life in Oman is worth less than $40000

In a new decree, the 'blood money' for someone's death has been raised to 15,000 rials.

It doesn't seem that much.

Seems a bit of a low limit, especially as an effective statutory limit for negligent death in a state hospital, for example. Will that really act as a driver to ensure the best interests of people?

Oman increases blood money award
By Sunil Vaidya, Bureau Chief
Published: November 06, 2008.

Muscat: Oman has raised diya (blood money) and arush (compensation for injuries) through a Royal decree issued on Wednesday evening.

The Royal order by Sultan Qaboos Bin Saeed has raised the diya for the deceased to 15,000 Omani riyals (about Dh143,000). At the same time the order stipulates that compensations for injuries will be estimated based on the diya, and in all cases a loss of the function of a limb shall be considered a loss of the limb.
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6 comments:

  1. When you say "effective statutory limit", does that include health/life insurance?

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  2. Boxster,
    No life insurance doesn't care how you die generally, and will of course pay out as a result.

    However, the decree does effectively cap someone's liability in the Sultanate for causing death, even if that 'someone' causing the death is the State and the death was caused by an act of negligence.

    A bit strange.

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  3. I suppose we have the inverse in the States. The absence of liability caps and the flexibility of the legal system (combined with HMO greed) have driven medical costs and insurance premiums to ridiculous levels.

    I think in the US if you kill someone with a car it is a criminal offense (even if it was not premeditated) and carries some jail time with it, depending on the state.

    Do I understand correctly that in Oman I would just need 15,000 riyals and I'm clear?

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  4. Boxster: This 15,000 rials is Diyya (blood money). In Islam, Diyya is paid when you unintentionally kill someone. So you only get away with paying 15,000 rials ONLY in case of killing someone unintentionally. That's the diyya, according to the Islamic Shariha law which is the basic of the Omani civil law.

    Though, if you kill someone intentionally that's a totally different story. You don't just get away from it by paying 15,000 rials... Probably 15,000 rials plus jail time (or whatever the court decides depending on the case).

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  5. And this is why I get so pissed off when muppets run out in front of my car. How do I know they aren't terminally ill and just want the money for their family?

    And how does someone pay that if they can't afford it? Like if I ran over some lazy jerk who couldn't be fucked to climb up to the pedestrian overpass tomorrow, I couldn't pay that off.

    I don't even see how blame can be put on the driver doing 120 km/hour, this is a flawed system.

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  6. I agree with angry in oman. Its not our fault that people cant hold their balance rite when standing in the middle of a flippin highway and waiting to dash across speeding cars.

    I do feel bad for people crossing roads, while we are sitting far more lavishly in our cars. However my only plea is for one n all to be extra cautious!

    Pedestrians have some consideration for the people driving and vice versa too.

    ReplyDelete

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