“The committee has suggested 31 alternative punishments for prisoners whose crimes do not require imprisonment and for whom verdicts are left to the discretion of judges,” he said.
Al-Sabban was a former chairman of the department to supervise prisons at the Prosecution and Investigation Commission (PIC).
He said criminals could be asked to pay fines, do social services, be prevented from traveling, have their driving licenses seized, or be deprived of other privileges.
“The current alternative punishment to which some judges resort — asking criminals to memorize chapters of the Holy Qur'an — is in fact not a punishment. It is a duty of Muslims to memorize the Holy Book. I wish the judges review this punishment,” he said.
Al-Sabban proposed a close supervision of the criminals who benefited from the substitute punishment and to take them back to prisons to serve their terms in case of any violations or on failure to respect the substitute punishment.
On the other hand, a Tarahum committee in Makkah recently held a meeting during which it discussed a working paper on the issue presented by Sheikh Tanaf Al-Daajani, president of the Makkah summary court.
The paper contained a number of proposals concerning substitute punishments specifically for criminals with families who might suffer because of the convicts’ absence.
A number of judges, sociologists, psychiatrists, academicians and others participated in the meeting.
They agreed to hold a second meeting to reach concrete recommendations, which will be submitted to Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal. Chairman of the committee in Makkah Sheikh Yahya bin Attiyeh Al-Kinani said the meeting was in line with the concerns of the government of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and within the directives of Makkah’s governor, who called for studying substitute punishments to be considered by courts all over the Kingdom.
He said the substitute punishments included social services such as cleaning mosques, attending Qur'an memorization sessions and whipping.
Al-Kinani said he supported alternative punishments particularly for criminals without previous criminal records for fear that they might acquire criminal tendencies from other inmates if they were sent to prisons.
