The Kelantan state government might resort to 18th century capital punishment equipment, the guillotine, to carry out punishments under the hudud law in order to avoid having to use surgeons to amputate limbs, a report in The Star stated today.

Kelantan Deputy Menteri Besar Nik Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah was quoted by the paper as saying that the state is studying the possibility of using a “mini-guillotine” to amputate limbs of those convicted of theft without having to acquire the services of surgeons.

The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) had previously criticised Kelantan’s hudud framework, saying that having surgeons amputate limbs would be asking them to go against the Hippocratic Oath.

The guillotine was used for capital punishment in 18th century France, and the last person to be executed via guillotine in France was a Tunisian, Hamida Djandoubi, in 1977.

It involves a heavy blade falling on the limbs set to be amputated.

If Kelantan introduces the mini-guillotine, it will become the first authority in the world to use the form of punishment in almost 40 years.

The state’s hudud technical committee is set to discuss the matter.

“I plan to attend the next meeting and propose the mini-guillotine idea for detailed discussions,” Nik Amar ( left ) was quoted as saying in the paper.

He also said that a doctor still needs to be present when a guillotine punishment is carried out to ensure the punished person does not “suffer drastically”.

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