A 24-year old Saudi Arabian man, who’s been in jail for 10 years for causing the paralysis of another, is set to be surgically paralyzed as part of his court appointed punishment and it’s got some human rights groups up in arms.
Amnesty International, based in London, is publicly condemning the punishment which is viewed as justifiable under Islamic sharia law. This law follows the eye for an eye belief and since the man, Ali al-Khawaher, stabbed his childhood friend in the spine with a knife during a fight causing him to be paralyzed from the waist down it is believe Khawaher should be given the same fate or pay the victim “blood money” for the incident.
Blood money is a sum decided upon by the victim and it’s meant as a way for the offender to pay compensation for the crime. Khawaher was 14 when the incident happened and has been in jail for the last decade as his family tries to come up with the one million Saudi riyals ($270,000) the victims family has asked for.
It’s a sum the Khawaher family will never be able to reach.
“We don’t have even a tenth of this sum,” Khawaher’s 60-year old mother told media.
Amnesty International condemns the actions saying punishments like this shouldn’t be allowed in this millennium.
According to Yahoo.ca:
“Paralyzing someone as punishment for a crime would be torture,” Ann Harrison, Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director, said in a statement late on Tuesday.
“That such a punishment might be implemented is utterly shocking, even in a context where flogging is frequently imposed as a punishment for some offenses, as happens in Saudi Arabia,” she added.
The human rights group is urging Saudi officials to review it’s laws which they deem outdated. In the past punishments in the Middle-Eastern country have included flogging, pulling out of teeth and death. [ Source] [Picture]
