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Kurdistan
Kurdistan Justice Group (Komal) MP Hawraman Gacheney during a parliament session on December 22, 2021. Photo: screenshot
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A member of the Kurdistan Region parliament on Wednesday called on the Kurdish government to resort to the penalty of amputating hands for theft as a way of fighting crimes, reciting a verse from the Quran.
The parliamentary session held on Wednesday morning addressed the losses caused by floods that hit Erbil last week, officials have previously blamed residential project managers for changing the path of rain water, which in turn would cause floods.
At his turn to speak, Kurdistan Justice Group (Komal) MP Hawraman Gacheney said that the disaster caused by the flood was a result of people’s irresponsibility, and that similar cases have happened in the past and will happen again if necessary measures are not taken.
“I ask the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to implement this verse from the Quran for only one year, I am not saying that crimes will end, but it will lower largely,” Gacheney said, reciting a verse from the Quran’s fifth chapter that states “As for the thief, the male and the female, amputate their hands in recompense for what they earned as a deterrent from Allah.”
The verse explains that the punishment for theft is to cut the hands of the thief, a penalty still practiced in some countries, such as Iran, Saudi Arabia and Somalia.
The United Nations Human Rights Council and International human rights organizations have condemned countries that carry out amputation of limbs as inhumane and torture.
"Amputation is torture plain and simple, and administering torture is a crime under international law," Amnesty International said in response to the reports of an amputation in Iran in 2018. "Those responsible for ordering and executing such practices should know that they are liable to criminal prosecution under international law."
The MP went on to say that the KRG should make an example out of those who commit crime and are corrupt.
“If two thieves' hands are cut, the crime and corruption rate, I swear, will become less,” he said.
Floods hit several southeastern neighborhoods and sub-districts in Erbil province early Friday, killing 12 people, including foreigners.
Sasan Awni, KRG’s municipality and tourism minister, said on Monday that nearly 3,000 houses were affected and over 400 of them were completely destroyed. He added that the government needs over $14 million to compensate for the losses.
Erbil province often faces severe floods in the colder seasons of the year. Nearly 600 houses suffered material damage and stalling vehicles blocked flooded main roads in its first strong rainfall of the year in late October.
In the past years, several neighborhoods of Erbil have faced severe damages due to floods.
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