Saudi prince lashed and jailed for breaking law after recent royal execution

Less than a month after executing a prince for killing a man, a Saudi Arabian court ordered lashing of another royal for breaking the law, a local newspaper reported. The punishment was carried out on Monday (31 October) afternoon, following which the prince was sent to a prison.

On 18 October, Prince Turki bin Saud al-Kabeer was executed after being found guilty of shooting a man dead during a brawl three years ago. The execution was the first in more than four decades.

Five people representing different monitoring agencies oversaw the execution of the court order, Gulf News reported, citing a report in the Saudi Arabian daily Okaz. The report noted that the unidentified prince was lashed inside a prison in the Red Sea city of Jeddah.

The flogging was carried out after medical tests confirmed the prince was not suffering from any disease, in which case the punishment would have been postponed. The report, however, did not mention the crime for which the prince was lashed and sentenced to prison.

Saudi Arabia reportedly follows a strict interpretation of Shariah law under which homicide and unintentional homicide are treated as a civil dispute between people. In murder cases, if the family members of a victim accept compensation (or blood money, as referred to under Shariah law), then the accused is pardoned.

The recent execution of the royal received mixed response, with some hailing the judicial system for being fair to all, and some others expressing shock and surprise at the incident. The previous occasion when a royal was executed in the Islamic country was in 1975 when Faisal bin Musaid al-Saud was executed for assassinating his uncle, King Faisal.

Most executions in the country are carried out by beheading in a public square.