Riyadh, December 16: Amnesty International urged Saudi Arabia, a Group of 20 member, to stop the flogging and imprisonment of a 75-year-old woman and two younger men found guilty of being in the company of the opposite sex.
A court sentenced Khamisa Mohammed Sawadi and one male, identified as Fahad, to 40 lashes and four months in jail and the second male, Hadyan, to 60 lashes and six months’ imprisonment, Amnesty said.
Saudi Arabia adheres to a strict version of Islam preventing unmarried men and women from mingling. Cinemas are prohibited and religious police patrol shopping centers.
In October, a Saudi court sentenced a man to 1,000 lashes for boasting about his sexual exploits on a Lebanese-based TV station.
-Agencies