A court in Hafr al-Batin has sentenced a Saudi citizen to death for insulting Allah, as well as the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his daughter Fatima, a local daily reported.
The court issued a preliminary ruling based on charges leveled by the prosecutor against the citizen who was charged with insulting the Prophet (pbuh) by tearing up pages of the Holy Qur'an and posting videos on social media sites.
The defendant rejected the ruling and the case has been referred to the Court of Appeals, the paper said.
The defendant, whose case is known as the “Hafr Al-Batin apostasy” case, was arrested by members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia) last year. He was subsequently referred to the Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution (BIP) to face charges of apostasy.
A three-member bench in Hafr Al-Batin ruled that the defendant was guilty of the charges and issued a preliminary death sentence for apostasy, the paper reported.
Saudi man sentenced to death for apostasy
