Saudi Arabia | Proposal to abolish flogging in anti-drug code

Cairo: A member of the Saudi advisory Shoura Council has proposed amending the kingdom’s anti-drug law to allow abolishing flogging as a form of punishment, a Saudi news portal has reported.

Akhbar24, citing unspecified sources, said the proposal had been made by the council’s member Hadi Al Yammy.

However, the proposal drew opposition from the council’s security committee, the sources added without elaborating.

“The proposed amendment targets more than one article related to penalties in the drug and psychotropics-combat law,” they said.

There was no comment from the council or the author of the amendment.

In recent years, Saudi Arabia has sought to reform its justice system as part of dramatic changes in the country led by King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

In April 2020, the Saudi Human Rights Commission announced that a royal order had been issued abolishing the death penalty for minors.

The order applies to convicts who were under 18 at the time of committing crimes, in a major step seen boosting human rights in the kingdom.

Public prosecution was also directed to amend indictment bills against underage defendants to make the maximum penalty for them 10 years in prison, Saudi media reported at the time.

In the same vein, the kingdom’s Supreme Court has issued a decree revoking the flogging punishment in ta’zir cases (discretionary punishment) and directed courts to limit penalties in such cases to jailing or fines, or both of or any alternative punishment.

In Islamic code, ta’zir refers to punishment issued at the discretion of the judge in offences for which there is no specific punishment in Islam’s holy text the Quran or hadiths (traditions) of the Prophet Mohammed —both are the main sources of the Islamic Sharia law.

Source: gulfnews.com, Staff, December 23, 2023

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