Man sentenced to 30 lashes for smoking on Saudi plane

A Sudanese man will be given 30 lashes for smoking in a “no smoking” area on a domestic Saudi Arabian Airlines flight. The man was warned to stop smoking by cabin crew.

The flight was en route to the Red Sea port of Jeddah from Qurrayat in northern Saudi Arabia. During the flight, the man refused to stop smoking and the crew had no other choice but to report him to Saudi police. Smoking has been banned on domestic flights on Saudi Arabian Airlines since 1987. Anti-smoking regulations were implemented in 1999 for overseas flights. Saudi officials have also banned smoking in many public places. Under Sharia law, flogging is a common punishment for a number of offences including adultery or being alone in public with an unrelated person of the opposite sex. When the plane landed, Saudi police arrested the man. He was given 30 lashes as punishment by the judge. The man apologized to the judge and said he was a compulsive smoker and was attending a clinic to quit smoking. But the judge was not swayed and sentenced the man to deter others from doing the same in the future. Human rights groups condemned the flogging, saying it was “degrading and inhuman.”