Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy Wednesday said he would personally take up with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the issue of the Keralite jailed in Saudi Arabia, who will lose an eye if a court verdict there is implemented.
Naushad, hailing from Kollam district, had been directed by the court to give one eye to the person whose eye was lost during a scuffle with him.
Addressing reporters after a cabinet meeting, Chandy said he had already written to the prime minister in this regard and would talk to him as soon as he returned from Russia.
"We will request for humanitarian treatment to the prisoner, though the government has limitations in taking up such matters with another country," he said.
Since it was a court verdict, only the Saudi king could do something to reduce the sentence, he said.
Stating that it was not proper to interfere in another country's judicial system, Chandy, however, said the crime committed by Naushad was not intentional or pre-planned, but was incidental. He said special treatment was warranted in the case.
Chandy said Sijo Jose, who had been released by the US Army from a prison in Iraq after the intervention of the Centre, would arrive at Kochi Wednesday.