By Adnan Shabrawi

Okaz/Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — Divorce cases attested by the Saudi courts during May have surpassed the marriage contracts in six regions which were Makkah, Riyadh, the Eastern Province, Qasim, Hail and Najran, according to the statistics issued by the Justice Ministry.

The ministry said there were 711 marriages between Saudi couples in Makkah against 900 divorce cases while there were 2,596 marriage contracts in which one of the couple was non-Saudi against 228 divorce cases.

It said the courts in Riyadh conducted 722 marriage contracts among Saudi couples and made 969 divorce deeds. The courts also registered 2,099 marriage contracts in which one of the couples was non-Saudi against 107 divorces.

The ministry said in the Eastern Province there were 512 marriage contracts among Saudi nationals against 625 divorces. The marriage contracts which involved Saudis and expatriates were 1,185 and the divorces were 57.

There were 37 marriage contracts in Najran among Saudi couples while there were 75 divorce cases and in Qasim there were 120 marriages and 194 divorce cases.

The ministry said Saudi courts in May conducted 4,436 marriage contracts against 4,035 divorces while the marriages in which one of the partners was non-Saudi were 8,945 and the divorces were 531.

It noted that the rate of divorces among married couples in which one of the partners was non-Saudi were less than the number of divorces among the couples who were both Saudis.

Makkah came first with 3,307 marriage deeds and 1,128 divorces followed by Riyadh which had 2,821 marriages and 1,076 divorces.

The ministry said marriage contracts all over the Kingdom that month were more than 13,000 with a rise of about six percent over their number the same time the previous year.

It said the daily marriage contracts conducted by Saudi courts ranged between 392 and 1,457.

It said there were 4,566 divorce cases, half of them were in Riyadh and Makkah while the daily average divorces ranged between 158 and 318.