31 July 2011

Iran man pardoned from acid in eye punishment at last second

Majid Mohavedi waited on his knees weeping, a doctor standing over him with a phial of corrosive chemicals in his hand, when his victim, watching from above, had a last-minute change of heart.

Ameneh Bahrami, once a woman of striking beauty, was blinded and hideously disfigured after Mohavedi threw a bucket of acid over her in 2004 in a fit of anger after she had rejected his proposal of marriage.

Under Iranian law, Miss Bahrami was entitled to seek retribution in kind – a practice, endorsed by the Koran known as qesas that prescribes "eye-for-an-eye" justice. The court that convicted Mohavedi ruled, however, that he could only be blinded in one eye. [telegraph.co.uk] Read more