Iran Judge Blinds Man Guilty in Acid Attack

Some rough justice in Iran: Medics removed one eye from a unnamed man who blinded another man in an acid attack, reports the Guardian. And this was relatively lenient: Originally, both eyes were to be removed, but the victim (who was fully blinded) had a last-minute change of heart and asked the judge to spare his attacker's right eye, for now. The guilty man, who also is serving a 10-year sentence, now has six months to plead to keep it. While such sentences have been handed out previously under sharia law in Iran, this appears to the first time one has actually been carried out, notes the Guardian. The man was rendered unconscious before the procedure.

“Punishing someone by deliberately blinding them is an unspeakably cruel and shocking act," says an Amnesty International official. "This punishment exposes the utter brutality of Iran’s justice system and underlines the Iranian authorities' shocking disregard for basic humanity." Another convicted acid attacker was supposed to have been blinded on the same day, but that victim, who has the final say under Iranian law, stopped it at the last moment. “I gave them two more months to provide me with compensation for my treatment.” (More Iran stories.)