Saudi man sentenced to be paralysed under 'eye for an eye' legal code A Saudi Arabian court has threatened to paralyse a man by cutting his spinal cord. A SAUDI man convicted of paralysing his best friend in a knife attack is being threatened with having his spinal cord cut in a tit-for-tat punishment. Ali Al-Khawahir was 14 when he stabbed his friend in the backbone and has been imprisoned for 10 years. He has been told that he will be sentenced to being fully paralysed himself unless he pays the victim $260,000 in a form of compensation, reported the Saudi Gazette. His mother has begged people to contribute money to the fund. "I have been frightened to death whenever I think about my son's fate and that he will have to be paralysed," she said. Saudi Arabia enforces strict Islamic law and occasionally doles out punishments based on the ancient legal code of an eye for an eye. Its strict regime has also seen 28 people beheaded this year.