YEMEN Man was found guilty of rape. As his official punishment, his penis was amputated in public before a crowd of spectators.
Although such brutal punishments were never part of Yemen’s official legal system, it is true that they occurred quite frequently in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. In remote parts of Yemen, local tribes had (and in many places still have) a high degree of autonomy and enforced their own punishments according to their interpretation of Islamic law. Today, corporal punishments can still be found in Yemen, but the last documented cases of penile amputation date back to the early 21st century.
Among the corporal punishments that are provided for under Yemeni law and are still carried out today are flogging, hand amputation, and the death penalty. Some of these punishments are still carried out publicly. Their primary purpose is to deter citizens from committing crimes by instilling fear and to demonstrate the authority of the government.
