Manama: A court in Makkah has sentenced a Saudi man to 100 lashes and a SR100,000 (Dh97,935) fine after he was found guilty of making racist remarks.
The defendant reportedly insulted another man from a different tribe in a mobile message.
The racism-related verdict is believed to be the first in the Saudi courts and the defendant has 30 days to appeal it, news site Okaz Daily reported on Thursday.
The issue of racism has recently loomed large in the kingdom after a Saudi woman, Nawal Al Hawsawi, filed a lawsuit against a woman who called her ‘Abda’ (female slave), a derogatory term often used in the Gulf to refer to black people.
Nawal, a pilot, was reportedly queuing up at a large shop in Makkah, in western Saudi Arabia, when another woman pushed her in order to go ahead of her.
Nawal protested and the woman retorted with the racist slur.
Nawal, a human rights activist involved in community work in Saudi Arabia, insisted on calling in the police to deal with the situation.
After filing a lawsuit, she hired two lawyers and made sure she did not yield to pressure to withdraw the case at that stage.
However, after the woman apologised, Nawal eventually dropped the lawsuit.
A report published a by a local think tank said tribal prejudice was the highest manifestation of fanaticism in Saudi Arabia, followed by partisanship for the family and then for the sect.
