HAFR AL-BATIN — The General Court has sentenced to death a young Saudi man in his 20s for denouncing Islam as his faith and various other acts of blasphemy, Al-Sharq reported.

A source from the court reported that the convict documented his apostasy by capturing a video and posting it on the social networking site Keek.

The source said: “In the video he cursed God, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his daughter Fatimah and ripped a copy of the Holy Qur’an and hit it with a shoe.

“The death sentence was issued after his apostasy was proven.”

The Hafr Al-Batin branch of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice arrested him last year and his case was forwarded to the Bureau of Investigation and Public Prosecution.

A sheikh at the Ministry of Islamic Affairs Abdullah Al-Enizi said renuciation of Islam is not a new phenomenon.

He said: “It has existed since the age of the Prophet and there are multiple Qur’anic verses on it.

“The phenomenon continued throughout the Islamic ages and cursing the Prophet and the Qur’an is a form of conversion that must be dealt with accordingly through the courts.”