New York: Terming the 'eye-for-an-eye' sentence, given to Naushad, the 33-year-old Indian who is jailed in Saudi Arabia, as 'torture masquerading as justice', the US based NGO Human Rights Watch on Saturday said King Abdullah 'must prevent' the implementation of the punishment.
The Human Rights Watch said that Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah should take urgent steps to ensure that a court sentence to gouge out an Indian worker's eye is not carried out.
"King Abdullah should take urgent steps to ensure that the Shariat court's order to gouge out an eye of the Indian is not carried out," said Joe Stork, deputy director of the US based watchdog Human Rights Watch's Middle East division.
Naushad, hailing from Anchal in Kollam district of Kerala, had been asked by a Shariat Court to give an eye-for-an-eye as punishment for being the cause of a Saudi losing an eye during a scuffle.
"This literal eye-for-an-eye sentence is torture masquerading as justice," Stork said referring to the plight of Naushad.
"King Abdullah must prevent the imposition of corporal punishment in violation of the country's obligations under international law," he added.
"Saudi Arabia acceded to the Convention against Torture in 1997. However, Naushad's case is the third known instance over the past year in which a Saudi court has issued a sentence of eye gouging," said the US-based human rights watchdog.
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