Saudi Hospitals Are Asked to Maim Man as Punishment
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CAIRO (AP) — A Saudi Arabian judge has asked several hospitals in the country whether they could damage a man’s spinal cord as punishment for his attacking another man with a cleaver and paralyzing him, the brother of the victim said Thursday.
The victim, Abdul-Aziz al-Mutairi, 22, was left paralyzed after a fight more than two years ago and subsequently lost a foot. Mr. Mutairi asked a judge in northwestern Tabuk Province to impose an equivalent punishment on his attacker under Islamic law, his brother Khaled al-Mutairi said by telephone from the province.
Khaled al-Mutairi said that one of the hospitals, in Tabuk, said that it was possible to damage the spinal cord, but that the operation would have to be done at a more specialized facility.
Saudi newspapers reported that a second hospital, in the capital, Riyadh, declined, saying it could not inflict such harm.
Administrative offices of two of the hospitals and the court in Tabuk were closed for the Saudi weekend beginning Thursday and could not be reached for comment. A copy of the medical report from King Khaled Hospital in Tabuk said the same injury Mr. Mutairi suffered from could be inflicted on his attacker using a nerve stimulant, and inducing the same injuries in the same locations.
Saudi Arabia enforces strict Islamic law and occasionally metes out punishments based on the ancient legal code of an eye for an eye. But King Abdullah has been trying to tamp down extremist ideology, including religious decrees issued by unauthorized clerics.
The query by the court, among the most extreme to have been made public in the Saudi kingdom, highlights the delicate effort to balance a push to modernize the country with strict interpretations of religious traditions.
“We are asking for our legal right under Islamic law,” said Khaled al-Mutairi, 27. “There is no better word than God’s word, an eye for an eye.”
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