Iranian court orders man to be blinded

[emad]

The Independent
By Angus McDowall in Tehran
28 June 2005


An Iranian court has sentenced a man to have his eyes surgically removed for a crime he committed as a teenager 12 years ago. Amnesty International has condemned the sentence, reported in the Iranian daily Etemaad, but local human rights groups say these unusual punishments are hardly ever executed.

Reformists and dissidents fear human rights could suffer under the new administration of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but they believe the new abuses will be political crackdowns. Punishments such as stoning have become much less common, since Iran's Islamic judiciary agreed to suspend such sentences as part of a human rights dialogue with the EU.

Etemaad says the accused, identified only as Vahid, was 16 when he threw a bottle of acid at another man during a fight in a vegetable market in 1993. The top opened - Vahid insists accidentally - and blinded his victim in both eyes. A court said the crime should be judged as qisas, a category for which the Koran stipulates specific punishments, in this case an eye for an eye. The paper said the sentence was to pour acid on Vahid's eyes, but an appeals court ruled it should be done surgically so as not to harm other parts of his face. Amnesty described the sentence as "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment amounting to torture". It called for a change of sentence.

Human rights and legal specialists in Iran say unusual sentences are sometimes passed by Islamic courts, which are bound by rigid Koran injunctions for certain crimes. But they say these punishments are usually used as leverage for the amount of compensation to be paid by the offender to the victim.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=650178

[Straight Shooter]

1. Why was there a bottle of acid in a vegetable market?

And if this guy was carrying a bottle of acid in a public place, why didn't he have the top secured so as to prevent any kind of accident.

The law of unintended consequences. I have no pity for this man, although I deplore the sentence. They should make him spend the rest of his life helping the blind. Perhaps then his soul would truly learn a lesson.

[RaleighNCDUer]

2. You're reading the story all wrong.

It's not about crime and punishment.

It's about how barbaric the Iranians are, so we need to invade and save them from themselves.

I challange you to read the paper every day for the next two weeks, and compare the number of negative Iranian stories against the number of positive Iranian stories (of which there will be approx. zero).

[KansDem]

3. Group of Americans mutilate, burn, and hang fellow citizen...

The lynching of Henry Smith in Paris, Texas 1893
First modern spectacle lynching influenced by modern American consumerism

There are, of course, countless numbers of these kinds of photos. Because some are so horribly graphic, I chose this one to make my point. I also included a link.
http://www.americanlynching.com/photos-old.htm

But the questions remains: When will we be invaded and saved from ourselves?

[NashVegas]

7. Not Only That

Compare the number of negative & human rights Iran stories to: 6 months ago, 1 year ago, 4 years ago.

[Straight Shooter]

8. You're right. I was reading it from the standpoint of justice.

There are also stories coming out about oppression of the citizens in Iraq, right? By pointing out Iran's "barbarian" ways, it only serves to emphasize that Iraq is heading that way, too, under Islamic rule.

bush opened up a can of worms that are slowly mutating into dragons.

[Oversea Visitor]

4. Its their law

Just don't break it thats all. An eye for an eye hey no complain here.
Imagine the victim blinded for life. So what if the one who done it get blinded for life too.Yeah its inhuman barbaric and all that crap
but thats the law an eye for an eye.

[jayfish]

5. Reminds Me Of Chemical Castration. -NT-

Jay

[Syncronaut Seven]

6. Dateline USA

17 black men were sentenced separately today for possession of a small amount of crack cocaine.

The judge silently acknowledged that repeated beatings resulting in broken bones and internal bleeding, followed by gang rape and resulting slow death by AIDS hepatitis and tuberculosis was not overly severe considering the nature of the crime.

The DA and jury concurred without reservation.