A person filed a claim before the Reconciliation Committee of the General Court in Jedda against another person accusing him of cursing and insulting him.

The court requested evidence from the claimant, and he said that his witnesses were members of the Reconciliation Committee but they had refused to attend the court.

The claimant requested the defendant to swear under oath to confirm that he had not verbally abused him, but the defendant refused to swear the oath.

The rule was that the evidence must be provided by the claimant and the oath should be requested from the party that denied the accusation. Therefore the Court charged the defendant with verbally abusing the claimant based on the prophetic tradition which stated, “The Muslim is the one from whose tongue and hand the people are safe”.

Given that the defendant was an old person, the court ruled that he must be flogged ten times in one session.

The court of appeal upheld the ruling.