The Ministry of Health demands over 127 billion SAR in compensation from tobacco companies under the supervision of Al-Musaytir.

The Ministry of Health has raised its compensation claims against tobacco companies to more than 127 billion SAR. This was confirmed by the Director General of the Legal Department at the Ministry, Mr. Ibrahim bin Suleiman Al-Musaytir, who stated that legal proceedings officially began yesterday at the Grand Court in Riyadh.

Al-Musaytir explained that the number of defendants—local agents representing tobacco companies—had reached 13, of whom only two attended the hearing. One of them lacked legal status and claimed to have no connection to the case. He added that the Ministry submitted its statement of claim to the court, which then handed it to one of the representatives who attended the session. The court scheduled the next hearing for the 19th of Safar, 1430 AH, allowing the company time to respond and requiring the absent agents to appear.

He also reported that from 1982 to 2007, more than 568 million kilograms of cigarettes were imported into the Kingdom, equivalent to about 31 billion packs or over 617 billion individual cigarettes. He noted that tobacco companies had previously agreed to settlements in lawsuits filed against them totaling more than 246 billion USD, approximately 1 trillion SAR. These same parties are now preparing to file new lawsuits with demands reaching 400 billion USD, equivalent to over 1.4 trillion SAR.

Al-Musaytir emphasized that the Ministry’s lawsuit is driven by the significant harm smoking causes to public health, including various forms of cancer, heart disease, atherosclerosis, and death. These health issues have placed a massive financial burden on the Ministry due to the cost of treating smokers and even passive smokers.

He revealed that one of the tobacco companies had offered the Ministry a settlement three years before the lawsuit, proposing to pay 180 million SAR annually to cover patient treatment costs. He confirmed that this case is the first of its kind among Islamic countries.

Employees from the Ministry of Health were seen at the court carrying large metal briefcases containing documents supporting the case.