Saudi Arabia tells courts to end flogging

Abu Dhabi: Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Justice, Chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council, Shaikh Dr. Walid Bin Mohammad Al Samani, issued a circular to all courts informing them to abolish flogging and instead hand down jail time, fines, or other alternative punishments, in implementation of the Supreme Court’s ruling in this regard, Saudi media reported.

The most high-profile flogging in recent years was of the Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes on charges of insulting Islam.

For decades, if someone in Saudi Arabia got drunk in public, that person could have been flogged in a public square.

Now, as part of his effort to reshape how the kingdom is run, Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman has done away with flogging as punishment, and dampened the international condemnation that came with it.

Offenders will now be spared the rod and will get fines, jail time instead or both or other alternative penalties.

Saudi officials hailed the move to abolish flogging as another bold reform by the Crown Prince.

Flogging was most often part of the punishment for so-called moral crimes such as public drunkenness or what judges deemed to be inappropriate contact between unrelated women and men.