Judge calls for Sharia law to cut spinal cord

A SAUDI judge is seeking to have a criminal's spinal cord cut as punishment for an assault with a meat cleaver that rendered his victim paralysed.

Amnesty International has urged the authorities in Saudi Arabia to stop the sentence, sought by a judge in Tabuk, from being carried out. Under Islamic law retribution sentences can include eye-gouging, chopping off the hands of thieves and beheading murderers.

The judge, Saoud bin Suleiman al-Youssef, has already written to hospitals in the area to ask how to damage the culprit's spinal cord and so render him as paralysed as his victim.

One replied saying a nerve stimulant could result in the required injury.

Abdul-Aziz al-Mutairi, 22, was left paralysed and subsequently lost a foot after a fight more than two years ago. The assailant, who has not been identified, was sentenced to 14 months, released after seven and is now understood to be working as a school teacher.

Al-Mutairi has now asked the judge to impose an equivalent punishment on his attacker under Islamic law.

His brother Khaled al-Mutairi, 27, said: "We are asking for our legal right under Islamic law. There is no better word than God's word - an eye for an eye."

A spokesman for Amnesty International said: "We urge the Saudi Arabian authorities not to carry out such a punishment, which amounts to nothing less than torture."