CAIRO (AP)  A Saudi Arabian judge has asked several hospitals in the country whether they could damage a man’s spinal cord as punishment for his attacking another man with a cleaver and paralyzing him, the brother of the victim said Thursday.

The victim, Abdul-Aziz al-Mutairi, 22, was left paralyzed after a fight more than two years ago and subsequently lost a foot. Mr. Mutairi asked a judge in northwestern Tabuk Province to impose an equivalent punishment on his attacker under Islamic law, his brother Khaled al-Mutairi said by telephone from the province.

Khaled al-Mutairi said that one of the hospitals, in Tabuk, said that it was possible to damage the spinal cord, but that the operation would have to be done at a more specialized facility.

Saudi newspapers reported that a second hospital, in the capital, Riyadh, declined, saying it could not inflict such harm.