If a medieval law is implemented, an immigrant worker from Kerala will have his eye gouged out for having damaged the eye of a Saudi national.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: An immigrant worker from Kerala will have his eye gouged out as punishment for having damaged the eye of a Saudi national two and a half years ago if a medieval law in that country is implemented.
Abdul Latheef Noushad (32) from Kerala, languishing in a Dammam jail for two years and eight months can save his eye only if his Saudi victim Naeef Muthefi relents on his insistence on implementing the law. Noushad’s family in Kollam pins its hopes on the mercy of the Saudi national.
Noushad, employed in a petrol filling station, caused damage to Muthefi’s eye in a brawl in April 2003. The Saudi subsequently lost his eyesight. According to Saudi law, the victim could demand the eye of the accused to be gouged out and he did just that though Noushad was ready to give a hefty compensation.
On Monday, Noushad called up his neighbour’s house in a remote village in Kollam district. His wife Suhaila, shattered by the news that a court may carry out the savage punishment to be carried out, broke down.
“Are you okay there?” she asked in tears. She had seen Noushad last on October 27, 2002, when his vacation back home ended.
“He has been in jail for close to three years now. We had appealed to the Indian embassy in Saudi in 2003. But they have not taken any action. He gets to call us from the jail very rarely. Children always ask about him…” Suhaila says between tears. The couple has two kids – Nasif (5) and Asna (3). Noushad has not seen his daughter.
“We appealed to the Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia as early as in 2003 to get our son released. They said they would take up the matter. But they haven’t done anything,” said Noushad’s father Abdul Latheef, a labourer who has been supporting his son;s family despite his old age. Grief and old age have taken its toll on his wife.
“Whenever he calls he would say everything’s going to be alright. His friends, colleagues, everyone said he would be released soon…before Bakrid, before Ramzan…we waited for three years like that. Now when we see the paper, this news…. Please give us our son back. He is our only solace,” laments Noushad’s mother Nabeesa Bivi.
The family lives in a tiny house with no electricity connection. Now the medieval laws threaten to blow out their last ray of hope.
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