Saudi Arabia: Man arrested for flag desecration

Abu Dhabi: The Saudi police have arrested a citizen for deliberately dropping the national flag from a vehicle while driving on a street in the Wadi Al Dawasir, a town in Najd, Saudi Arabia.

The man, in his 20s, filmed the incident and published it on social media, police said.

Major Khaled Al Kreidis, assistant spokesperson for the Riyadh police, said the man’s action was a cybercrime. “The man was remanded and moved to the Public Prosecution for further investigation and trial,” Major Al Kreidis said.

Actions that may be treated as desecration of a flag include burning it, urinating or defecating on it, defacing it with slogans, stepping on it, damaging it with stones or guns, cutting or ripping it, improperly flying it, verbally insulting it, dragging it on the ground, or even eating it.

Flag desecration may be undertaken for a variety of reasons. It may be a protest against a country’s foreign policy, including one’s own, or the nature of the government in power there. It may be a protest against nationalism or a deliberate and symbolic insult to the people of the country represented by the flag. It may also be a protest at the very laws prohibiting the act of desecrating a flag.

Burning or defacing a flag is a crime in some countries. In countries where it is not, the act may still be prosecuted as disorderly conduct, arson, or, if conducted on someone else’s property, theft or vandalism.