The National Society for Human Rights has welcomed the issuance of the decision of the General Assembly of the Supreme Court based on the Royal Order to refrain from issuing flogging sentences as punishment. The Chairman of the Society, Dr. Muflih Al-Qahtani, has said that this step comes within the framework of promoting applying human rights in the Kingdom. For more illustration, this order will contribute to restrict the judge’s authority to impose flogging as a punishment, as it was noticed that some of its judges have exaggerated in such punishment in the past years despite the legal and juristic texts that don’t support such matter.

In addition, it is worth to be mentioned that the disciplinary punishment differs from the marginal punishment, which is not based on the judge’s judgment and will not be covered by this decision since it’s stipulated in the Islamic law.

Besides, the judge will find many alternative penalties other than flogging, which will contribute to the reform of the perpetrator and benefit the community.

The Chairman of the Society has added that this decision will represent a qualitative shift in the philosophy of punishment in the Saudi judiciary, and we hope that this will be accompanied by the approval of many other alternative penalties in addition to the imprisonment and fine.

Moreover, this decision will also contribute to improve the Kingdom’s image internationally, as some people criticize the Kingdom for applying such punishment.