And when I say “SA”, I mean Saudi Arabia.

Of course, I couldn’t possibly be talking about the South Africa “SA”. We don’t sever the spinal cords of our criminals.

We send them to cooking school.

But enough of such tom foolery. Where were we? Ah yes. Corporal punishment.

You see, they’re quite keen on the “eye for an eye” vibe in Saudi Arabia. In line with Sharia law, courts usually sentence criminals to the removal of a hand, an eye gouge, public stoning or beheading. But in this case it’s spine for a spine, all the way.

Especially if you’re the kind of criminal who paralysed their victim with a meat cleaver.

Henceforth, the paralysed victim has requested that a punishment matching the offense be meted out to the con, who has already served seven months in prison for the deed.

The court’s wasted no time in seeking out a hospital (and therefore a surgeon) to carry out the procedure.

There couldn’t possibly be a doctor wiling to forcibly sever a healthy person’s spinal column, could there? Wrong again, Western Nancy! The Hypocratic Oath just doesn’t apply in Saudi Arabia, so you can take your “first do no harm” vibes and shove them up your infidel nought.

The court’s found a hospital (with wheelchair access) willing to carry out the “procedure”.

This is my favourite quote from the BBC news report:

Correspondents say the case highlights attempts by Saudi Arabia to balance religious traditions with a push to modernise the country.

Ah, I see. Oh yes, of course. I can see how they’ve struck that balance between tradition and modernisation by electing to paralyse the criminal via the stroke of a scalpel blade, as opposed to lobbing a few sharp stones at his lower back.

[Source : BBC]