IRAN. MAN SENTENCED TO HAVE EYES GOUGED OUT FOR TEENAGE CRIME

June 10, 2005: Iran’s State Supreme Court has upheld a sentence for a young man’s eyes to be gouged out and sprayed with acid, for blinding another man at the age of 16 some 12 years ago.
The defendant, only identified by his first name Vahid, was convicted of deliberately pouring acid on the face of another individual by the name of Gholam-Hossein while he worked as a labourer in Tehran when he was 16 years old, though he maintained throughout the trial that the attack was not intentional and that he had only meant to threaten the man because of an earlier scuffle. He said that the lid of the battery which the acid was in accidentally opened.
The phrase “An eye for an eye” is very stringently adhered to in Iran’s Islamic law.
The original court ordered for acid to be sprayed on Vahid’s face as retribution for his actions, though his lawyer appealed the decision on the grounds that the rest of his face would also be damaged from the acid.
A second court rejected the appeal and instead ordered for Vahid’s eyes to be gouged out by a “qualified surgeon, so as not to damage the face itself”.
The State Supreme Court has ruled for authorities to go ahead with carrying out the punishment, though Vahid’s lawyer is presently negotiating with Gholam-Hossein’s family to give clemency to his defendant. Vahid has been requested to pay 3 billion Rials ($300,000) as blood-money to forego the punishment however he has stated that he does not have such an amount of money.   (Sources: Iran Focus 10/06/2005)