Saudi judge considers eye-for-an-eye punishment

CAIRO - A Saudi judge has asked several hospitals in the country whether they could damage a man's spinal cord as punishment after he was convicted of attacking another man with a cleaver and paralyzing him, the brother of the victim said yesterday.

Abdul-Aziz al-Mutairi, 22, was left paralyzed and subsequently lost a foot after a fight more than two years ago. He asked a judge in northwestern Tabuk province to impose an equivalent punishment on his attacker under Islamic law, his brother, Khaled al-Mutairi, told The Associated Press.

He said one hospitals, located in Tabuk, responded that it is possible to damage the spinal cord, but it added that the operation would have to be done at a more specialized facility. Saudi newspapers reported that a hospital in Riyadh, declined, saying it could not inflict such harm.

A copy of the medical report from the King Khaled Hospital in Tabuk province obtained by the AP said the same injury al-Mutairi suffers from can 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 unauthorized 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 modernize 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, Khaled al-Mutairi, 27, said the assailant was sentenced to 14 months in prison for the attack that paralyzed his brother, but was released after seven months in an amnesty. He said the attacker then got a job as a schoolteacher.

"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."