Saudi judge 'asks hospital to paralyse man as punishment'

A Saudi judge has asked several hospitals to paralyse a man by damaging his spinal cord as punishment after he was convicted of attacking another man, the brother of the victim said on Thursday. Abdul-Aziz al-Mutairi, 22, was left paralysed and subsequently lost a foot after a fight more than two years ago. He asked a judge in north-western Tabuk province to impose an equivalent punishment on his attacker, his brother Khaled al-Mutairi said.

He claimed one of the hospitals, located in Tabuk, responded that it was possible to damage the spinal cord, but it added that the operation would have to be done at another more specialised facility. Saudi newspapers reported that a second hospital in the capital Riyadh declined, apparently on ethical grounds, saying it could not inflict such harm. Administrative offices of two of the hospitals and the sharia court in Tabuk were closed for the Saudi weekend beginning on Thursday and could not be reached for comment.



A copy of the medical report from the King Khaled Hospital in Tabuk province said the same injury al-Mutairi suffers from could be inflicted on his attacker using a nerve stimulant, and inducing the same injuries in the same locations. The report was dated six months ago. Saudi Arabia enforces strict Islamic law and occasionally doles out punishments based on the ancient legal code of an eye for an eye. However, King Abdullah has been trying to clamp down on extremist ideology, including unauthorised clerics issuing odd religious decrees. The query by the court, among the most unusual and extreme to have been made public in the kingdom, highlights the delicate attempt in Saudi Arabia to balance a push to modernise the country with interpretations of religious traditions that critics say are out of sync with a modern society.

The Saudi newspaper Okaz identified the judge as Saoud bin Suleiman al-Youssef. The brother said the judge had asked at least two hospitals for a medical opinion on whether surgeons could render the attacker's spinal cord nonfunctional. He and Saudi newspaper reports did not identify the attacker. Khaled al-Mutairi, 27, said the assailant was sentenced to 14 months in prison for the attack that paralysed his younger brother, but he was released after seven months in an amnesty. He said the attacker then got a job as a school teacher. "We are asking for our legal right under Islamic law," the brother said. "There is no better word than God's word - an eye for an eye."