Flogging as a punishment abolished in S. Arabia

RIYADH: State Human Rights Commission of Saudi Arabia has informed here today that the country had abolished flogging as a punishment and no more convicts would be sentenced to flogging.

Chairman Awad-ul-Awad stated: “This decision guarantees that convicts who would previously have been sentenced to the lash will from now on receive fines or prison terms instead.”

It is pertinent to mention here that Saudi courts that earlier enjoyed powers to order flogging of those found guilty of murder, extra-marital sex and breach of peace, would now choose between fines and/or incarceration.

One may recall back in 2014, Raif Badawi was sentenced to 1000 lashes besides 10 years in prison for insulting the religion of Islam in his blogs. In 2015 he was awarded EU Parliament’s Sakharov human rights price.

Savants at the helm of affairs are of the view that lashes had been abandoned following death of 69-year-old Abdullah Al-Hamid, the founding member of Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association, in custody.