Kelantan denies proposing guillotine for amputations
(The Rakyat Post) – Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah has denied issuing a statement proposing the use of guillotine for cutting off limbs of offenders in the implementation of hudud as reported by The Star Online yesterday.
Mohd Amar who is the chairman of Kelantan’s hudud technical committee expressed his disappointment with the report when contacted by The Rakyat Post yesterday.
“A reporter called me saying that there was a suggestion made to the Kelantan state government to use the guillotine because medical doctors refused to carry out amputations.
“I told the reporter that we would hear all suggestions and do a study first before presenting it to the technical committee.”
Mohd Amar, who is also Kelantan deputy Menteri Besar said he had not heard the suggestion of using a guillotine from his committee members.
“This is the first time I’m hearing the use of guillotine to amputate. The reporter then suggested I look it up on the Internet to obtain more information on the use of guillotine,” he explained to The Rakyat Post.
Asked if he would table the suggestion to the committee, he said: “I will not bring this suggestion in a meeting.
“Which is why I said any suggestions must be studied and we have to obtain experts’ opinion before we can include this in the meeting’s agenda. That is the procedure.”
He added that based on fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), doctors should be able to carry out amputations under hudud law.
“In Islamic jurisprudence, surgeons are allowed to amputate under hudud because the methods used by specialists will surely not injure the nerves as compared with simply chopping off someone’s limbs.”
Mohd Amar however, did not deny that the committee had yet to come up with a suitable method to conduct amputations should hudud be implemented in the state.
“We organised a seminar on the methods to implement hudud in October.
“It was held in Kota Baru with the cooperation of the Islamic Development Department (Jakim) and Kelantan’s Religious Affairs Department, and doctors, lawyers, judges and mufti were invited.
“During the seminar, I was not told by committee members that the suggestion of using guillotines was put forth,” he further explained.
He added that the committee would convene a meeting on Nov 24 to look into the details of the suggestions that came up during the seminar.
Kelantan has set 2015 as the target to implement hudud in the state and Mohd Amar said he hoped that all Muslim parliamentarians would support the motion once it was tabled in Parliament.
