Man sentenced to 30 lashes as punishment for flouting no smoking ban on Saudi Arabian flight

A Sudanese man has been sentenced to 30 lashes for smoking on a domestic Saudi Arabian Airlines flight.

Wearing just a thin shirt, he will be flogged by a policeman wielding a slim reed who must hold a book under his arm to prevent him using too much force.

The strokes are not meant to leave permanent damage but to inflict painful welts that bleed and bruise.

The unnamed smoker refused repeated requests from cabin crew to stub out his cigarette on a flight to the Red Sea port of Jeddah from Qurayyat in northern Saudi Arabia. He was arrested when the aircraft landed in Jeddah and promptly handed over to police.

The man apologised in court - and to prove his penitence presented evidence that he was attending a clinic to help him kick his heavy smoking habit.

But the judge was keen to make an example and gave a sentence designed to serve as a deterrent.