Saudi Arabia Kingdom has announced that it is ending flogging as a form of punishment.
The decision comes just days after leading activist and one of the founding members of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA) Abdullah al-Hamid died from a stroke in custody while serving an 11-year prison sentence.
What does it mean: The decision by the general commission for the supreme court will mean the punishment will be replaced by prison sentences, fines or a mixture of both.
Flogging: Flogging has been applied to punish a variety of crimes in Saudi Arabia. Without a codified system of law to go with the texts making up sharia, or Islamic law, individual judges have the latitude to interpret religious texts and come up with their own sentences.
Rights groups have documented past cases in which Saudi judges have sentenced criminals to flogging for a range of offences, including public intoxication, harrassment and extramarital sex. In 2014, blogger Raif Badawi was sentenced to 10 years in prison and also sentenced to 1,000 lashes for “insulting Islam” and for setting up a liberal media forum.
