Judge orders 'an ear for an ear'

A Pakistani court has ordered that two brothers should have their noses and ears cut off after they were found guilty of doing the same to a woman who refused to marry one of them, a government prosecutor said yesterday.

The two brothers, Sher Mohammad and Amanat Ali, abducted their cousin, Fazeelat Bibi, 22, at gunpoint in September after her father refused to let her marry Mohammad. "They put a noose around her neck and tried to strangle her. After failing to do so, Sher Mohammad chopped off her nose and two ears with a knife," government prosecutor Ehtesham Qadir said. The Lahore judge handed down the sentences in line with the Islamic law of Qisas.

The law stipulates punishment equal to the crime unless the culprit is pardoned by the victim or the victim's family. Such sentences are rarely handed down and have always been revoked on appeal. The court also sentenced the pair to life in prison.