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Abu Dhabi introduces new machine learning programme to follow up on criminal cases

Judges started using AI systems to decide when, and for how long, criminals should be jailed in 2019

A new smart program has been developed to follow up and speed cases in Abu Dhabi criminal courts using machine learning, authorities have announced.

The Abu Dhabi Judicial Department (ADJD) on Monday said the programme, which is a form of Artificial Intelligence (AI), aims to increase the accomplishment rate and speed of adjudication of criminal cases. They are also working on updating the programme to include electronic judgements in crimes that end either by conciliation or waiver and crimes that have passed the statute of limitations.

Counselor Youssef Saeed Al Abri, Undersecretary of the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department, said that employing Artificial Intelligence techniques to follow up on the work of the criminal courts is a paradigm shift in the judicial system in the capital, which is line with the leaders’ vision to develop smart and innovative future courts that provide world-class services.

Counselor Mansour Al Marzouqi, President of the Abu Dhabi Criminal Court, explained that the uses of machine learning currently applied in the criminal courts are manifested in the immediate follow-up of all the work of the judicial divisions, by providing accurate statistics of the completed cases, the underway cases, the follow-up of those in custody in pending cases, accomplishment rate, and adjourned cases, which provide clear indications to ensure that urgent steps are taken to expedite dealing with cases..

“The smart program, enhanced with AI techniques, also allows the possibility of describing the judgement, whether in presence or in absentia in electronic form, while allowing the transfer of substantial data to the draft judgement, such as the names of the accused, the charges articles, and a description of the charges against the accused in the cases before the Criminal Court,” he added.

Al Marzouqi pointed out that work is underway to update the system to accommodate many procedures in criminal cases, to include the issuance of judgements electronically in crimes that end by conciliation or waiver, as soon as the waiver or conciliation is proven in a number of cases, including assault, verbal abuse, and destruction, as well as crimes that have elapsed their statute of limitations.

The Abu Dhabi Judicial Department had in 2019 reported that judges started using AI systems to decide when - and for how long - criminals should be jailed.

Khawla Salem Al Qubaisi, IT director at the ADJD, earlier told Khaleej Times that the department introduced the AI system in courts to assess risks and help judges in sentencing criminals.

"To create the AI system, our team uses computers to analyse data from different court cases. We use the historical data through machine-learning algorithms,” she said.

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