Saudi court commutes Palestinian poet’s death sentence to jail and lashes

RIYADH // A Saudi court has commuted the death sentence against a Palestinian poet on charges of apostasy and abandoning his Muslim faith to eight years in jail and 800 lashes, his lawyer said.

Ashraf Fayadh was detained by the country’s religious police in 2013 in Abha, south-west Saudi Arabia, and rearrested and tried in early 2014.

The new ruling, posted by Fayadh’s lawyer, Abdulrahman Al Lahim, on his Twitter account said that the court has decided to “go back on the previous death sentence” but confirmed the charges that had prompted the death penalty.

“The accused is sentenced to a punishment of eight years in jail and 800 lashes divided into instalments, 50 lashes for each instalment,” the ruling stated, according to the Twitter posting.

A spokesman for Saudi Arabia’s justice ministry could not immediately be reached for comment.

Fayadh’s conviction was based on evidence from a prosecution witness who claimed to have heard him cursing Allah, the Prophet Mohammad, and Saudi Arabia, and the contents of a poetry book he had written years earlier.

A lower court had previously sentenced Fayadh to four years in prison and 800 lashes. The case went to the Saudi appeals court and was then returned to the lower court, where a different judge last November 17 increased the sentence to death.

The second judge ruled defence witnesses who had challenged the prosecution witness’ testimony ineligible.

* Reuters