Iran court orders acid attacker to 'lose eye and ear'

AFP, Wednesday 29 Dec 2010

Judge orders assailant to suffer the same injuries as his victim

An Iranian court has ruled that a man must lose an eye and an ear after he blinded and burnt the ear of another man in an acid attack, newspapers reported Wednesday.

Judge Aziz Mohammadi passed down the ruling against the accused, who was only identified as Hamid, after convicting him of throwing acid on the victim, named as Davoud, said the hardline Kayhan newspaper.

The judge also ordered Hamid to pay blood-money for the burn injuries suffered by Davoud, in a ruling issued under the Islamic republic's eye-for-an-eye justice code.

Hamid told the court he had mistaken Davoud for a classmate who had bullied him in high school, said Shargh newspaper.

The reports did not say whether the authorities would carry out the punishment by using acid.

Several acid attacks have been reported in Iran in the past few years.

In November, the supreme court upheld a sentence of blinding with acid against a man only named as Mojtaba, who blinded his lover's husband in the holy city of Qom.

In February 2009, Majid Movahedi was sentenced to be blinded in both eyes for hurling acid in the face of a university classmate, Ameneh Bahrami, who refused his marriage proposal.

There has been no reported confirmation that the sentences were carried out.

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