Publish the names and photos of all kidnappers!

Abdulaziz Al-Thakeer   I AM against naming and shaming people who are engaged in minor violations or who commit misdemeanors. Publishing their photos in local newspapers will not be effective. However, I cannot help but wonder why the media, especially newspapers, do not name and shame those who have committed major, horrendous crimes. How can they publish the photo of someone who counterfeited a form or a driver’s license, yet fail to publish the photos of people who take and give bribes? I do not understand the logic here. I asked a prestigious law professor about this practice and told him I had never seen the photos, for example, of persons who were involved in kidnapping children and abusing them sexually. Whenever similar incidents take place, the newspapers use the initials of those who committed such heinous acts, and never reveal their full identity. The professor said the anti-bribery law stipulates that the photos of counterfeiters should be published. On the other hand, the photos of the kidnappers of teenage boys or those who try to seduce them in order to abuse them sexually will not be published in the media because there is no legal text on this matter in the law itself. A professor at King Saud University explained it differently. He said most Saudi families have similar grandfather and family names. Naming and shaming a kidnapper whose grandfather and family names might be similar to another innocent person may cause a lot of trouble to the innocent person. The other problem is that even if a kidnapper’s name is not similar to any other person, the tribe which the kidnapper belongs to would be angry if his full name was published in the media. I strongly believe that the names of kidnappers should be published in newspapers together with their identification numbers. If they did not care about sullying the name of their family and tribe, why should the government care about it? They should have thought about the consequences of their actions before engaging in such practices. I urge all judges to study the issue and release a unanimous decision in support of this view.