Saudi Arabia: Court Orders Eye to Be Gouged Out

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia should take urgent steps to ensure that a court sentence to gouge out a migrant worker's eye is not carried out, Human Rights Watch said today. The Greater Shari'a Court of Dammam sentenced Puthan Veettil 'Abd ul-Latif Noushad, an Indian citizen, to be punished by having his right eye gouged out in retribution for his role in a brawl in April 2003 in which a Saudi citizen was injured. A court of appeal in Riyadh has reportedly merely asked whether the Saudi man would accept monetary compensation instead.

"This literal eye-for-an-eye sentence is torture masquerading as justice," said Joe Stork, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East division. "King Abdullah must prevent the imposition of corporal punishment in violation of the country's obligations under international law."

Saudi Arabia acceded to the Convention against Torture in 1997. However, Noushad's case is the third known instance over the past year in which a Saudi court has issued a sentence of eye-gouging, Human Rights Watch said. Saudi law allows for maiming, including the severing of limbs and severe flogging, as judicial punishments.

The injured Saudi man, Nayif al-'Utaibi, has so far insisted that the sentence be carried out, refusing to pardon Noushad or accept monetary compensation. Noushad's Saudi employer, Abu Muhammad al-'Umri, has reportedly offered to pay over $25,000 in compensation. He told Human Rights Watch that he had no faith that the appeals court would overturn the verdict, and that only a pardon could save Noushad's eye unless the plaintiff decides to accept compensation.


http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HRW/2c5c72a1ccee36f3c47781dc4b5ffa8d.htm

we know where they stand on inhumane treatment. Buzzards of a feather..................

:spank:

The 64,000-rial question? What's the punishment for repeat offenders?

Think about it. :puke: :grr: :banghead:

The law as well as the insistence by the injured man that this sentence should be carried out. What a fucked up place.

glass eye for good behavior and community service??

Building bridges to the 5th century. Gotta love 'em. :sarcasm:

Mz Pip
:dem:

a relative few in government, especially one under dynastic rule.

We have our own bad apples in our government and court system, too.

right threw where he lived.. it was also a highway of ideas

How much longer are we to pretend that Saudi Arabia is an ally? and how can we continue to pretend that the practice of Sharia law is simply another cultural difference to be embraced under the heading of diversity?

n/t

When they're not crashing our airliners into our buildings, they're gouging eyes out.

I smell a sitcom! Dibs on the rights!

An eye for an eye makes the world blind!

Hope the first person be punished like this is some fundies kid. See how they like it then! There's a wall between church/state for a reason.

I'm so glad we don't do that kind of justice in this country.

*Looks at death penalty states*

Hmmmmm....

so medieval it austounds and Amazes, A barbaric peoples, a silly peoples.

Where would they get such a barbaric idea from?