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Iranian Court Orders Man To Be Blinded
ezilon.com ^ | 6/28/2005 | Angus McDowall

Posted on 06/30/2005 4:36:53 PM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle

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.

In this case, the victim seeks £180,000, which a board of arbitration is trying to reduce because the defendant says he cannot pay. The board is also trying to persuade the victim's family to give up their demand that the crime should be classed as qisas.

"The reformist administration didn't really react much to this sort of case anyway," said Shadi Sadr, a prominent human rights lawyer in Tehran.

"They were more focused on freedom of expression and political dissent. So I don't expect the change in executive to make much difference to cases where Islamic penalties are imposed."

Mr Ahmadinejad said on Sunday: "Today, moderation and tolerance will be our government's main lines, a government of friendship and tolerance that belongs to all Iranians. We will serve members of this nation without considering their tendencies."

But reformists fear a new assault. Iran regularly imprisons journalists who write about taboo subjects such as financial corruption at the top, or criticise the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The reformist journalist Akbar Ganji is currently on hunger strike after being jailed five years ago for reporting the assassination of dissidents. In 2003, a Canadian-Iranian journalist was killed in the judiciary's custody.

Over the past few years, Iran's conservative judiciary has waged a war of attrition against reformist and dissident publications, jailing journalists and bloggers, closing newspapers and banning websites.

Until now, reformist politicians could at least speak out against abuses. But the new administration is expected to work more closely with the judiciary. Abuses are usually raised by international bodies including the EU, which can address their concerns only through Iran's foreign affairs ministry, not the judiciary.

Ayatollah Shahrudi, the head of the judiciary, has declared torture unlawful. But a Human Rights Watch report last year found it had become more common.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: allahakbar; iran; islamofascism; moongod; religionofpeace; sharia; yourbrainonislam
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1 posted on 06/30/2005 4:36:54 PM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle

So this is literally "An eye for an eye" justice?


2 posted on 06/30/2005 4:39:02 PM PDT by softwarecreator (Facts are to liberals as holy water is to vampires)
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
I'll carry out the sentence...


3 posted on 06/30/2005 4:40:09 PM PDT by Onelifetogive (* Sarcasm tag ALWAYS required. For some FReepers, sarcasm can NEVER be obvious enough.)
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
Vahid, was 16 when he threw a bottle of acid at another man during a fight in a vegetable market

What the hell kind of vegetable market was he in?

4 posted on 06/30/2005 4:40:22 PM PDT by SIDENET ("You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred")
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
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.

Hmmm, he threw a bottle of acid at a man; and the bottle's lid accidentally came off? What an amazing coincidence!! Why, it's almost unbelieveable that such a thing would happen, while the jar was in mid-air, and the acid would by some miracle wind up in his target's eyes!! Amazing.

I for one, have absolutely no sympathy for this degenerate whatsoever. Act like a barbarian, live in a barbaric country, and reap the barbaric rewards.

5 posted on 06/30/2005 4:41:49 PM PDT by Hodar (With Rights, come Responsibilities. Don't assume one, without assuming the other.)
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle

Where's Human Rights Watch? Oh, I forgot, they're critiquing the food at Guantanamo.


6 posted on 06/30/2005 4:42:25 PM PDT by thoughtomator (The legislative process is like the digestive process, same end product)
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To: Onelifetogive

Oh no ayatollah I will pay up let me find my wallet,
lets' see 1,000 for a right eye and $500 for a left.


7 posted on 06/30/2005 4:42:52 PM PDT by rodguy911 (Time to get rid of the UN and the ACLU)
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To: SIDENET
What the hell kind of vegetable market was he in?

The kind that deals in 'roughage'. (rim-shot)

8 posted on 06/30/2005 4:43:15 PM PDT by Hodar (With Rights, come Responsibilities. Don't assume one, without assuming the other.)
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle

Take i6t from Nick Berg and hundreds of millions of innocent people murdered since 622 AD, Islam is Evil Incarnate.


9 posted on 06/30/2005 4:44:00 PM PDT by FormerACLUmember (Honoring Saint Jude's assistance every day.)
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To: softwarecreator

These savage mullas in Iran need some "shock and awe" as we toss them onto the ash-heap of history with all the other dead and defunct despots.


10 posted on 06/30/2005 4:44:06 PM PDT by NetValue (No enemy has inflicted as much damage on America as liberals.)
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
Take i6t from Nick Berg and hundreds of millions of innocent people murdered since 622 AD, Islam is Evil Incarnate.


11 posted on 06/30/2005 4:44:23 PM PDT by FormerACLUmember (Honoring Saint Jude's assistance every day.)
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To: thoughtomator
Rumors are someone got a bad fig in gitmo. Human rights, us senate,ACLU, NCIC,CIA all investigating.
12 posted on 06/30/2005 4:46:28 PM PDT by rodguy911 (Time to get rid of the UN and the ACLU)
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
"Reformists and dissidents fear human rights could suffer..."

What an understement! It sounds like a democrat preparing to understand the enemy for analysis and indictments.

13 posted on 06/30/2005 4:48:43 PM PDT by NetValue (No enemy has inflicted as much damage on America as liberals.)
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle

I'm just waiting for Amnesty International, the international human rights people, and the liberal media to put up a cry over this. If they say anything, they'll say it's Bush's fault for enraging them so.


14 posted on 06/30/2005 4:48:56 PM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity ("A litany of complaints is not a plan." -- G.W. Bush, regarding Sen. Kerry's lack of vision)
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To: Hodar
I for one, have absolutely no sympathy for this degenerate whatsoever. Act like a barbarian, live in a barbaric country, and reap the barbaric rewards.

Yea, but put a pair of panties on someone's head and all hell breaks loose.

LVM

15 posted on 06/30/2005 4:49:10 PM PDT by LasVegasMac ("God. Guts. Guns. I don't call 911." (bumper sticker))
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To: TheBigB
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.

...? :)

16 posted on 06/30/2005 4:50:02 PM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle ("As a conservative site, Free Republic is pro-G-d, PRO-LIFE..." -- FR founder Jim Robinson)
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To: Onelifetogive

Put him in a room with her and he'll gouge his own eyes out.


17 posted on 06/30/2005 4:51:27 PM PDT by Mister Baredog ((Minuteman at heart, couch potato in reality))
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
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. .... Amnesty described the sentence as "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment amounting to torture". It called for a change of sentence.

Interesting. AI used stronger wording and was more vitriolic against our military in GITMO.

18 posted on 06/30/2005 4:51:45 PM PDT by mountn man (Everyone brings joy into a room. Some when they enter. Others when they leave)
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To: thoughtomator

And still investigating the "massacre" in Jenin...cretins that they are


19 posted on 06/30/2005 4:52:43 PM PDT by sofaman
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
An Iranian court has sentenced a man to have his eyes surgically removed for a crime he committed as a teenager 12 years ago

See how civilized Sharia law has become. They used to just gouge em out.

20 posted on 06/30/2005 4:52:47 PM PDT by Mister Baredog ((Minuteman at heart, couch potato in reality))
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