The decision is no surprise as Iran’s qasas or retribution law clearly approves the ancient law of “an eye for an eye.” What is unknown is whether the Judiciary will quietly press the victim to exercise forgiveness as it did in another recent acid blinding case.
The daily Sharq reported that the Supreme Court has upheld a sentence of blinding in one eye for a waiter who hurled acid at a man five years ago in a plot hatched by the victim’s brother-in-law.
The 26-year-old waiter, identified only by his first name, Mohammad, confessed he was hired to throw acid at the victim, Vali, in return for around one million rials (less than $100), the report said.
Vali, who was blinded in one eye, demanded qasas so that Mohammad would be blinded in one eye in retribution.
The court ordered the attacker to be blinded without acid in one eye and pay blood money for Vali’s other injuries, the report said.
The Islamic Sharia code in force in Iran provides for retributive justice, most commonly for murder or for those convicted of causing intentional physical injury.
Several acid attacks have been reported in Iran in recent years, with the courts handing two attackers who had blinded their victims the qasas sentence last year.
The latest verdict comes nearly two months after a female victim of an acid attack, Ameneh Bahrami, forgave her assailant at the 11th-hour after years of insisting on her right of qasas. The Judiciary found one excuse after another to postpone the actual blinding until she relented. Senior Judicial officials recognize that such punishments give the Islamic Republic a very bad name around the world.
In December 2010, the Supreme Court upheld another sentence of blinding handed down against a man convicted of an acid attack against his wife’s lover that deprived the lover of his sight. There has been no reported confirmation of it ever being carried out.
Amnesty International criticized the sentencing in Bahrami’s case, saying it highlighted the need for legal reforms in Iran as the “cruel punishment which amounts to torture [is] prohibited under international law.”
