Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has done away with flogging as punishment as part of his effort to reshape how the kingdom is run.
For decades if someone in Saudi Arabia got drunk in public or wrote an article that provoked the kingdom’s ultraconservative judges, that person could have been flogged in a public square.
Saudi officials hailed the move, which was confirmed by the kingdom’s state-run human rights commission on Saturday, as another bold reform by Prince Mohammed.
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.
However, a video released of the first round of 50 lashes in front of a mosque in Jeddah, caused international outrage and Mr. Badawi has not been caned again. While he remains in prison, he has been embraced by some in the West as a symbol of the kingdom’s intolerance of freedom of thought and expression. In 2015, he was awarded the European Union’s top human rights award and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Saudi judges can still order the beheading of murderers and drug dealers, but lower-level offenders will now be spared the rod and will get fines or jail time instead.