Corpun file 14974

Iranmania.com, 17 January 2005

Ailing Iran drinker gets cat of 80 tails

LONDON, Jan 17 (IranMania) - Iran's judiciary has found a novel way of lashing a man for drinking alcohol despite warnings that the punishment would seriously endanger his health, according to the Iran newspaper.

Instead of lashing the man 80 times as had been ordered by a court, the Tehran judiciary instead decided that 80 twigs should be bound together and the man lashed once "so that the Islamic penal code could be carried out."

A state medical official had confirmed that the man, who was not identified and who had appealed the initial verdict on health grounds, was indeed sick and that "80 lashes would be perilous to his health".

The report said the man had been arrested on suspicion of involvement in a robbery and had confessed to drinking alcohol -- a crime in the Islamic republic that is punishable by fines, short jail terms or the lash.