RIYADH, 3 June — Islamic law will not bow to an outcry in Britain over the sentences of caning for four Britons convicted of alcohol trafficking in the Kingdom, a Saudi official warned yesterday.
“Islamic Shariah is the law applied in Saudi Arabia and no laxity is tolerated in implementation of this law” in the Kingdom, the official told the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper. The outcry in Britain over the sentences “will have no impact on the implementation of Shariah” against the Britons, said the official.
The Foreign Office in London said on Thursday that four British men have been sentenced to up to two-and-a-half years in jail and between 300 and 500 lashes each for trafficking in alcohol.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said the sentences were understood to be subject to review, adding that the men may ask for the lashes to be commuted in exchange for a longer jail sentence.
The Times newspaper reported that no Briton has been flogged in Saudi Arabia since 1985. It said the men, held since November, were among 12 Britons being held after a crackdown on the illegal trade in alcohol.
A Belgian, a Canadian and several other Western nationals are also jailed in Saudi Arabia awaiting trial on alcohol charges as an investigation continues into possible links between the trafficking and a series of bomb attacks.
Christopher Rodway, a Briton, was killed and his wife injured when their car blew up in central Riyadh on Nov. 17. Less than a week later, two other Britons and an Irish woman were injured in another Riyadh blast.
