IRAN: SUPREME COURT GIVES GO-AHEAD FOR REVENGE OF WOMAN DISFIGURED WITH ACID

May 25, 2011: the Iranian Supreme Court gave the go-ahead for the punishment of Majid Mohavedi, who will be blinded with acid based on the eye for an eye principle. He disfigured Ameneh Bahrami, 30, his university friend, with acid after she repeatedly rejected his offers of marriage, as reported by Iranian media.
The confirmation of the shocking sentence comes after its suspension in mid May, an hour before the punishment was to take place.
Amnesty International called the punishment "cruel and inhuman, amounting to torture."
The uproar regarding the sentence, the first of its kind in Iran, and the appeals by many doctors against the practice, forced the judge to suspend the punishment.
According to the Iranian press, the sentence will be carried out in a Tehran hospital after Ameneh refused to pardon her attacker. She demanded two million euros in order to renounce the punishment.
Islamic Shariah in Iran normally only applies the 'eye for an eye' principle in murder cases, where justice is achieved by inflicting the same crime on the accused.
Bahrami was 24 in 2002 when she knew Mohavedi. She was blinded in the attack and suffered severe wounds to her face and body.
Bahrami now resides in Spain where she is undergoing numerous facial reconstruction operations. In mid May she returned to Iran to aid in the punishment of Mohavedi and has said she is ready to carry out the sentence herself. (Sources: AGI, 25/05/2011)