 Crown Prince Abdullah has quashed a sentence of flogging and imprisonment imposed by a Shariah court on a Saudi writer, an informed source told Arab News.
| A rare Rantburg "Bravo!" to Prince Abdullah. |
Shariah court Judge Suleiman Al-Fantookh had sentenced Saudi Professor Hamza Al-Mizeini — not Ali as was reported by Arab News yesterday — to 275 lashes and a four-month imprisonment after his opponent, Dr. Abdullah Al-Barak, an Islamist who teaches in the same King Saud University as Al-Mizeini, filed a case against him accusing the writer of demolishing his image and saying Islamic textbooks taught at King Saud University were radical. Al-Mizeini had also been told that he would be banned from writing in the Saudi media.
| And to Hizzoner and the Perfessor: "Thhhhppp!" |
Prince Abdullah issued the decree to annul the court ruling. The decree was in response to the judge's violation when he issued a verdict against the writer despite his knowledge of a Royal Decree announced last week which states that all conflicts that concern publication matters must be dealt with through the Ministry of Culture and Information. The war of articles between the two professors went on in Saudi newspapers for some months, before Dr. Al-Barak finally went to a Shariah court to ask that Dr. Al-Mizeini be punished on religious grounds.
| I'll have to keep that in mind, next time I'm engaging in civil, well-reasoned discourse with somebody: if I'm losing the argument, I'll just take 'em to court and try to have them banned from making a living. Find the right judge, and maybe I can have them flogged and make my country look ridiculous. |
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