Manama: A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a man to five years in jail and to 2,400 lashes for assaulting his mother.
The man, in his 30s, will also have one tooth broken for breaking his mother’s tooth while he beat her when she was riding with him in a car, the court in Makkah said.
Judge Turki Al Qarni said that the tooth to be broken will be the same as the one his mother lost during his physical assault, Saudi daily Okaz reported on Thursday.
Under the principle of retributive justice, the punishment should correspond in kind and degree to the injury. A person who has injured another person is penalised to a similar degree.
The direct reciprocal justice is found in all divine religions, even though with various interpretations, as well as in Babylonian Law (Code of Hammurabi).
The ruling is based on the Quranic verse “And We ordained therein for them: A life (is the retribution) for a life, an eye for an eye, a nose for a nose, an ear for an ear, a tooth for a tooth, and for wounds is a retribution” (Al Maidadh — 45).
The lashes will be given in 60 parts, 40 every ten days, and the lashing will be carried out in public near a market, the judge said.
According to the report, the man was arrested after his bruised mother alerted the police at a security checkpoint and urged them to rescue her from him. He was apprehended and the Red Crescent was called to take the mother to a hospital for medical treatment, the daily said.
He reportedly admitted to assaulting his mother and breaking one of her front teeth.
The judge issued the ruling after he had the defendant checked for his mental faculties and whether he had taken any drugs.
According to the hospital report, the man was mentally sound and did not take drugs or consume alcohol.
Last year, a judge in the Red Sea city of Jeddah sentenced a man who had beaten his mother and broken her arm to remain in jail until she agreed to let him out.
The man, who admitted during the investigation that he had physically abused his elderly mother, was also sentenced to 200 lashes for his assault.
Judges in Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries often issue harsh verdicts against people who abuse their parents, often based on the high status that parents have in Islam.
Islam commands kindness, respect and obedience to parents and gives preference to the mother.
Under Islamic principles, respect for parents follows immediately obedience of God.
In Surat Al Isra, the Quran says: “Your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him and that you be kind to parents. Whether one or both of them attain old age in your life, say not to them a word of contempt, nor repel them, but address them in terms of honour. And out of kindness, lower to them the wing of humility and say, ‘My Lord! Bestow on them Your Mercy as they cherished me in childhood.’”
