(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - A Saudi government official announced the monarch's decision on Wednesday without offering further details.
The King made the decision after a Jeddah court sentenced Shaima Jastaina to 10 lashes for defying the kingdom's ban on female drivers.
Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that bans female drivers. Contrary to some press reports by Western media, the ban has no Islamic basis and reflects radical interpretations of Wahhabi clerics that guide the US-backed Saudi kingdom.
The sentence took Saudi women by surprise, two days after King Abdullah announced that women would be allowed to vote for the first time in 2015. However, there is no national voting in Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, women still do not have the right to vote or run as candidates in new municipal elections on Thursday, the second in the kingdom's history. The first were held in 2005.
Amnesty International (AI) has condemned the verdict, describing it as “discrimination against women in the kingdom.”
“Flogging is a cruel punishment in all circumstances but it beggars belief that the authorities in Saudi Arabia have imposed lashes on a woman apparently for merely driving a car,” said Philip Luther, the amnesty's Middle East and North Africa deputy director.
Saudi human rights groups also say the verdict is a payback for allowing women to take part in elections.
The sentence was handed down after 20 women were arrested over the past few months for driving as part of a campaign to exhibit their lack of rights in the kingdom.
Another female driver, Najla Hariri, is due to stand trial before the same prosecutor early next month.
On Tuesday, women rights activist Madiha al-Ajrush was detained briefly in the capital Riyadh after she was caught driving around the city.
In June, a group of defiant Saudi women got behind the wheels of their cars in response to calls for nationwide action to break the ban.
In addition to driving prohibition, women in Saudi Arabia must have written approval from a male guardian, which could be a father, husband, brother or son, to leave the country, work or even undergo certain medical operations.
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