TEHRAN (Web Desk) – An Iranian man will have his only working eye blinded in an ‘unspeakably cruel’ punishment after throwing acid in a taxi driver’s eyes in 2009.
Mojtaba Saheli, 31, was blinded in one eye with acid last year, but is now set to undergo the second and final stage of his punishment – the destruction of his right eye, the MailOnline reported.
Islamic code allows for ‘an eye-for-an-eye, a tooth-for-a-tooth’ retribution – known as ‘qisas’ – in cases of violent crime.
The convict was reported to have thrown acid in the face of his rival Ali Reza, a taxi driver, after an illicit affair with the victim’s wife in 2009.
He was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and the ‘eye for an eye’ punishment in 2010.
According to the International Business Times, the final stage of the punishment is due to be carried out in Gohardasht Prison in the capital, Tehran.
The system under which such punishments are meted out in Iran has been widely criticized by human rights activists. Last year when Saheli’s first eye was removed, Amnesty International’s Iran researcher Raha Bahreini labelled the punishment ‘unspeakably cruel’.
