Man to be blinded as Iran rules 'eye-for-an-eye'

Iran's supreme court has upheld a sentence of blinding with acid for a man who blinded his lover's husband, under the Islamic "eye-for-an-eye" justice code, a government daily said today.

The convict, named only as Mojtaba, 25, threw acid in the face of Alireza, 25, a taxi-driver in Iran's clerical hub city of Qom, after an "illicit affair" with the victim's wife, Mojdeh, also 25, said the newspaper Iran.

The supreme court has upheld a lower court ruling that Mojtaba be blinded with drops of acid, in line with Islamic justice, which allows for "qisas,' or eye-for-an-eye retribution, in cases of violent crime, it said.

Qom prosecutor Mostafa Barzegar Ganji said the victim had used his right to qisas. "We have asked for forensic specialists to oversee the blinding of the convict," he said, quoted in Iran.

Several acid attacks have been reported in Iran.

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

There has been no reported confirmation that the sentence was carried out.