Saudi Arabia ends death penalty for minors and floggings

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has ordered an end to the death penalty for crimes committed by minors, in line with an announcement Sunday by a top official.

The decision comes on the heels of another ordering judges to finish the practice of flogging, replacing it with jail time, fines or community service and bringing one amongst the kingdom’s most controversial forms of public punishment to an in-depth.

King Salman’s son and heir, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is seen because the force behind the kingdom’s loosening of restrictions and its pivot off from ultraconservative interpretations of shariah called Wahhabism, which many within the country still strictly adhere to.

The prince has sought to modernise the country, attract foreign investment and revamp Saudi Arabia’s reputation globally. He’s also overseen a parallel crackdown on liberals, women’s rights activists, writers, moderate clerics and reformers. The 2018 killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey by agents who worked for the prince drew sharp criticism internationally.

He said “more reforms are going to be coming,” which the two decisions “reflect how the Asian nation is forging ahead in its realisation of critical human rights reforms even amid the hardship imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The decree expands on a previous order by King Salman issued in late 2018, which set a maximum 10-year sentence for minors in some instances, aside from crimes punishable by death. Now the 10-year maximum applies to any or all crimes by children, with the possible exception of terrorism-related crimes.

“This step, if true, has to nullify current death sentences of all children,” Ali al-Ahmed, a Saudi rights activist in Washington, said.

Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court recently issued a directive to finish flogging as a kind of punishment sometime in April, in line with another document seen by The Associated Press.

The public spectacle of whipping a handcuffed prisoner for occasionally non-violent crimes had drawn some comparisons to the categories of punishment meted out by extremist groups just like the Islamic State. Saudi authorities had argued it was a kind of deterrence against potential criminals. Rights groups criticised the practice as inhumane.

The Supreme Court document said the choice was in line with the kingdom’s reforms and developments within the realm of human rights as directed by King Salman and overseen by the prince.

Five years ago, prominent Saudi blogger Raif Badawi was given 50 lashes before many spectators within the metropolitan city of Jiddah. It drew outrage and condemnation from around the world, including from many of Saudi Arabia’s Western allies. Badawi’s feet and hands were shackled during the flogging, but his face was visible.

Badawi is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence and was ordered to pay quite $266,000 in fines on charges associated with his criticism of Saudi Arabia’s influential clerics on the liberal blog he founded.

While some crimes, like murder, may carry fixed punishments under Saudi Arabia’s interpretation of shariah, or Shariah, many other offences are considered “tazir,” meaning neither the crime nor the discipline is defined in Islam.

Discretionary judgments for “tazir” crimes, like flogging, have led to arbitrary rulings with contentious outcomes. Muslim countries generally don't practice public flogging.

“This could be a good step, but we are still waiting to determine if existing lashing sentences are going to be reversed and expunged,” al-Ahmed said.