The Saudi establishment is taking the intentional burning of the Al-Jouf Literary Club seriously. Saudi Gazette/Okaz report that senior judges say the arson might rise to such a level that the perpetrators face capital punishment.

I don’t think it a stretch at all to see this attack as a form of terrorism; it meets the definition by undertaking an act of violence intended to intimidate a broad swath of people in order to change their political views.

Declarations of outrage, though, need follow-up. Will the authorities thoroughly investigate? Will they prosecute? That remains to be seen. The threat of judicial action, however, might stay the hand of other idiots.

Al-Jouf arsonists could face beheading
Naeem Tamim Al-Hakim

JEDDAH – Riyadh Summary Court judges have described the attack on the Al-Jouf Literary Club as an “act of sabotage, crime and corruption in the land” and said that the culprits could face jail, lashes and public defamation or even beheading.

“The sentence would depend on the investigation results and the judge, but if the act was part of wider, organized sabotage, then the case would be heard by the General Court where the judge could give jail sentences, lashes and public defamation,” according to Judge Saleh Aal Al-Sheikh. “If the culprit was an individual acting out of revenge, then the case would be heard by the Summary Court.”

If the perpetrator is a minor, Aal Al-Shiekh continued, he will be held at a Social Correction Home and a judge assigned to it will oversee the case.

“If the case has terrorist connections, however, then the culprit will be tried by the relevant courts whatever his age while detained at the correctional house,” he said.
Judge Ibrahim Al-Khudairi of the Riyadh Court of Cassation said the attack did not fall under “hiraba” punishment, a “hudood” or fixed-Shariah offense.

“If the charges include ‘damaging public and private property and threatening the life of Muslims’ then the convicted could be sentenced to beheading, particularly if it is proved that the perpetrator represents a danger that can only be eliminated by death,” Al-Khudairi said.
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