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PHOTO. Woman Blinded by Acid -Attacker to get Acid in the Eye Punishment
Iran to Blind Criminal with Acid in 'Eye for an Eye' Justice
Retribution granted to woman who had acid thrown in her face by man she refused to marry
Friday 13 May 2011 18.56 BST
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Ameneh Bahrami, who was blinded when a spurned suitor threw acid at her, asked for the same to be inflicted on him. Photograph: Lluis Gene/AFP
In a literal application of the sharia law of an eye for an eye, Iran is ready for the first time to blind a man with acid, after he was found guilty of doing the same to a woman who refused to marry him.
Majid Movahedi, 30, is scheduled to be rendered unconscious in Tehran's judiciary hospital at noon on Saturday while Ameneh Bahrami, his victim, drops acid in both his eyes, her lawyer said.
Bahrami who had asked for an eye for an eye retribution in the court, was disfigured and blinded by Movahedi in 2004 when he threw a jar of acid in her face while she was returning home from work. "He was holding a red container in his hand. He looked into my eyes for a second and threw the contents of the red container into my face," she told the court in 2008.
According to Iranian media, Bahrami's lawyer, Ali Sarafi, has said: "A very good sentence has been given and an appropriate method has been adopted so that the convict will be blinded by few drops of acids in eyes after he is rendered unconscious."
In a highly publicised dossier in November 2008, a criminal court in Tehran ordered qisas (retribution) on Movahedi after he admitted throwing acid at Bahrami, and entitled her to blind him with acid. He was also required to pay compensation to the victim. Bahrami refused to accept the "blood money" and told the court: "Inflict the same life on him that he inflicted on me."
Iranian officials have endorsed the the sentence in the hope of halting an increase in the rate of acid attacks. But human rights activists have warned against an "inhumane" sentence.
The British Foreign Office urged Iran to halt the sentence. "The attack on Ameneh Bahrami in 2004 was a horrific crime," a spokesman said. "However, we are deeply concerned by reports that Majid Movahedi's sentence of being blinded by having acid dripped into his eyes may be carried out.
"The FCO calls on the Iranian authorities to commute this inhumane punishment to an appropriate sentence in line with Iran's international obligations and to cease the practice of corporal punishment for crimes."
Iranian media have reported that Movahedi will be blinded in both eyes but Bahrami, in an interview in 2009, said that the man would be blinded only in one eye because "each man is worth two women" under Iranian law.
"The person who did this deserves to go through the same suffering. Only this way will he understand my pain … my intention is to ask for the application of the law not just for revenge but also so that no other woman will have to go through this. It is to set an example," Bahrami was quoted by the Spanish newspaper ABC as saying.
Bahrami, who has an electronics degree and worked in a medical engineering company before the attack, moved to Spain with the help of the Iranian government where she has undergone a series of unsuccessful operations. She briefly recovered half vision in her right eye in 2007 but an infection blinded her again.
Bahrami has recently published a book in Germany, Eye for an Eye, based on her personal life and her suffering since she was blinded.
In recent months, human rights organisations have expressed alarm over the unprecedented increase of capital punishment in Iran, which last year executed more people than any other country apart from China.
Original Report from The Guardian UK
Friday 28 November 2008
Eye for an eye: Iranian man sentenced to be blinded for acid attack
• Female victim was left sightless and disfigured
• She requests punishment, allowable under sharia law
- A man who blinded a woman in an acid attack after she spurned his marriage proposals has been sentenced to the same punishment, in a literal application of Iran's sharia eye-for-an-eye laws.
In a highly unusual judgment, Tehran province criminal court ordered Majid Movahedi, 27, to be blinded in both eyes from drops of acid in response to a plea from his victim, Ameneh Bahrami.
The punishment is legal under the sharia code of qisas, which allows retribution for violent crimes. The court also ordered Movahedi to pay compensation to the victim.
Bahrami was left horrifically disfigured after Movahedi threw a jar of acid in her face as she walked home from work in a busy Tehran neighbourhood in October 2004. She had previously complained to police about being threatened and harassed by Movahedi, who she had known while they were both university students, but had been told no action could be taken.
Since the attack, Bahrami has undergone 17 operations, some by surgeons in Spain, in an unsuccessful attempt to reconstruct her face. Her injuries led to the loss of one eye and left her blind in the other. The Iranian government has paid £22,500 towards her treatment.
Testifying in Movahedi's presence, she told the court that she wanted "to inflict the same life on him that he inflicted on me". Asked by the judge if she wanted Movahedi's face to be splashed with acid, she replied: "That is impossible and horrific. Just drip 20 drops of acid in his eyes so he can realise what pain I am undergoing."
Bahrami, an electronics graduate who worked for a medical engineering company before the attack, said Movahedi's family had asked her to marry him several times, but she had refused. Movahedi later threatened to kill her, she said, after saying that he had built his dreams around her.
Moments before the attack, she sensed she was being followed and tried to get away. But Movahedi caught up with her and stepped in front of her, before throwing acid in her face, leaving her screaming in pain.
Movahedi said he decided to attack Bahrami after she told him she had married someone else, and pleaded with him to leave her alone.
"I decided to splash acid on her face so her husband would leave her and I could have her," he told the court. He said he had earlier contemplated suicide.
Asked if he would still be prepared to marry Bahrami despite her injuries, Movahedi replied: "Yes. I love her."
Tehran's deputy public prosecutor, Mahmoud Salarkia, said the publicity surrounding the case would deter future acid attacks. "If this sentence is properly publicised in the media, it will stop the repetition of such incidents," he told the news website Tabnak. "Awareness of the punishment has a huge deterrent effect in stopping social crimes."
Guardian UK
END
There are so many of these acid attacks on women in some Arab countries and also in Pakistan. It is absolutely inhuman and so very very cruel.
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