Iran state media: Man spared punishment of blinding by acid

Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- A man convicted of blinding a woman in an acid attack was spared an eye-for-an-eye punishment Sunday, minutes before the sentence was to be carried out, Iranian state media reported.

The Fars News Agency reported that the victim had a sudden change of heart and decided to stop the punishment.

A physician was to drop acid -- under legal supervision -- into the eyes of Majid Movahedi on Sunday, according to Fars News Agency, to punish him for throwing acid in the face of Ameneh Bahrami seven years ago. The act disfigured her face and blinded her.

Bahrami had previously insisted on the vengeful punishment after her attacker's conviction in 2008.

"However in the last minute, Ameneh changed her mind and asked the proceeding to be halted," the Islamic republic's Fars state news agency reported.

This week marks the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan in the Islamic world, and pardons and commuted sentences commonly occur as a show of compassion leading into the holiday.

An Iranian court convicted Movahedi in 2008 of pouring a bucket of acid on Bahrami, after she had rejected his unwanted advances for two years.

Bahrami had demanded at the time that the court sentence the man to suffer the same fate he had inflicted upon her, and the court agreed, citing provisions in Islamic law.

The sentence was to be carried out in May 2011, but a court postponed it after Amnesty International protested against it on the grounds of cruelty.

Bahrami forgave her attacker in part for her country, she told state news agency ISNA, "since all other countries were looking to see what we would do." She "has called for blood money for her injuries", ISNA said.

The victim of the acid attack said life has been very difficult for her ever since.

Bahrami says she first met Movahedi in 2002 when they attended the same school.

She was a 24-year-old electronics student. He was 19. She never noticed him until he sat next to her in class and brushed up against her. Bahrami says she knew it wasn't an accident.

"I moved away from him," she said, "but he brushed up against me again."

Bahrami said that over the next two years, Movahedi harassed her and made threats, even asking her to marry him.

"He told me he would kill me. He said, 'You have to say yes.' "

On a November afternoon in 2004, his threats turned to violence when he followed her from the medical engineering company where she worked.

As she walked to the bus stop, she sensed someone behind her.

She turned around and was startled to see Movahedi, who threw something over her. What felt like fire on her face was acid searing through her skin.

"I was just yelling, 'I'm burning! I'm burning! For God's sake, somebody help me,' " she said.

The acid seeped into her eyes, and streamed down her face into her mouth. When she covered her face with her hands, streaks of acid ran down her fingers and onto her forearms.

In 2009, Bahrami told CNN that she had undergone more than a dozen surgeries on her badly scarred face, but still imagined that in the future she would have a wedding day.

"I always see myself as someone who can see and sometimes see myself in a beautiful wedding gown, and why not?" She said.

Source: CNN.com, July 31, 2011

Iranian sentenced to blinding for acid attack pardoned

An Iranian man who was ordered to be blinded for carrying out an acid attack on a woman has been pardoned by his victim, state television has said.

Ameneh Bahrami had demanded qisas, [...], but the report said she had foregone that right at the last minute.

A court had backed Ms Bahrami's demand in 2008 that Majid Movahedi be blinded.

He attacked Ms Bahrami in 2004 after she had refused his offer of marriage, leaving her severely disfigured.

Rights group Amnesty International had lobbied against the sentence, calling it "cruel and inhuman punishment amounting to torture".

Mother's praise

The state television website reported: "With the request of Ameneh Bahrami, the acid attack victim, Majid (Movahedi) who was sentenced for 'qisas' was pardoned at the last minute."

The Isna news agency quoted Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi as saying: "Today in hospital the blinding of Majid Movahedi was to have been carried out in the presence of an eye specialist and judiciary representative, when Ameneh pardoned him."

Isna quoted Ms Bahrami as saying: "I struggled for seven years with this verdict to prove to people that the person who hurls acid should be punished through 'qisas', but today I pardoned him because it was my right.

"I did it for my country, since all other countries were looking to see what we would do."

Ms Bahrami was quoted on Iranian TV as saying: "I never wanted to have revenge on him. I just wanted the sentence to be issued for retribution. But I would not have carried it out. I had no intention of taking his eyes from him."

Mr Dolatabadi told Isna that Ms Bahrami had demanded "blood money", or compensation, for her injuries.

He praised her "courageous act" of pardon, adding: "The judiciary was serious about implementing the verdict."

Ms Bahrami said she had never received any money from the man's family, saying she was seeking only compensation for medical fees, which she put at 150,000 euros ($216,000: £131,000).

She said: "He wont be freed. He has a sentence, which he has to serve for 10-12 years of which he has done seven. Unless the full compensation is paid, he won't be freed."

Isna quoted Ms Bahrami's mother as saying: "I am proud of my daughter... Ameneh had the strength to forgive Majid. This forgiveness will calm Ameneh and our family."

Source: BBC News, July 31, 2011

Iranian acid attack victim pardons culprit

An Iranian man convicted of throwing acid in the face of a female student has been pardoned from being blinded himself as punishment, a state-run television website has said.

Majid Movahedi was sentenced in February 2009 to be blinded in both eyes after being convicted of hurling acid in the face of university classmate Bahrami when she repeatedly spurned his offer of marriage.

"With the request of Ameneh Bahrami, the acid attack victim, Majid, who was sentenced for 'qesas' ['eye for an eye' justice] was pardoned at the last minute" after she decided to forgo her right, the website said.

The court-ordered blinding of Movahedi was originally postponed at the 11th hour in mid-May, with no official reason given.

Bahrami told the ISNA news agency she pardoned her attacker because "God talks about 'qesas' in the Koran but he also recommends pardon since pardon is greater than 'qesas'".

"I struggled for seven years for this verdict to prove to people that the person who hurls acid should be punished through 'qesas', but today I pardoned him because it was my right.," she said.

"I did it for my country, since all other countries were looking to see what we would do."

Pardon hailed

Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, a Tehran prosecutor, hailed Bahrami's decision, but also said that the judiciary would have carried out the blinding sentence.

"Today in hospital the blinding of Majid Movahedi was to have been carried out in the presence of an eye specialist and judiciary representative, when Ameneh pardoned him," the ISNA news agency quoted Jafari Dolatabadi as saying.

"However, she demanded blood money for her injuries," Jafari Dolatabadi said, referring to compensation allocated to the victims of violent crimes when they suffer serious injuries, without elaborating.

"The judiciary was serious about implementing the verdict, and Ameneh by her courageous act pardoned the 'qesas' of this man," Jafari Dolatabadi said.

In mid-May, Arman newspaper quoted Bahrami as saying: "I want two million euros to guarantee my life and my future, not for treatment.

"It is only then that I will give up 'qesas' against Majid, although they said - and I hope it is true - that the sentence will be carried out next week."

ISNA on Sunday quoted Bahrami's mother as saying she was proud of her.

"I am proud of my daughter ... Ameneh had the strength to forgive Majid. This forgiveness will calm Ameneh and our family," she said.

'Cruel punishment'

Amnesty International said in a statement on Sunday that the case highlighted the need for legal reforms in Iran as the "cruel punishment which amounts to torture [is] prohibited under international law".

Iran's Islamic sharia law code provides for retributive justice, most commonly for murder or for those convicted of causing intentional physical injury.

Bahrami, who was 24 when she met Movahedi in 2002, has been undergoing medical treatment for her disfigurement for years in Spain.

She is blind in both eyes and still has serious injuries to her face and body.

Several acid attacks have been reported in Iran in recent years.

The press has been generally supportive of Bahrami, publishing sympathetic interviews with her and photographs of her face before and after the attack.

In December 2010, the supreme court upheld another sentence of blinding handed down against a man convicted of an acid attack against his wife's lover that deprived him of his sight, but there has been no reported confirmation of it being carried out.

Source: Al Jazeera, July 31, 2011              

Acid blinding punishment stopped in Tehran

Iran Human Rights, July 31: The retribution sentence of a man convicted of throwing acid in the face of a woman was set to take place this morning in Tehran but it was not implemented. Majid Movahedi was pardoned by Ameneh Bahrami, according to a report by the Iranian state-run news agency ISNA.

“By the request of the acid attack victim Ameneh Bahrami, Majid (Movahedi), who was sentenced to ‘qesas’ (an ‘eye for an eye’-style justice), was pardoned last minute after Ameneh Bahrami decided to forgo her right [to retribution]," said the report.

Majid Movahedi was sentenced by a Tehran court to blinding by ten drops of sulfuric acid in 2008. His crime was splashing acid on Ameneh Bahrami four years earlier because she had allegedly spurned his marriage proposals. The acid had severely burned Ameneh Bahrami’s face and blinded her. The retribution sentence was approved by the Iranian Supreme Court in February 2009.

Ameneh Bahrami told ISNA in an interview today that she pardoned Majid Movahedi because, “God talks about qesas (retribution) in the Qur’an but he also recommends pardon, because it is greater than qesas.”

“I did it for my country, since all other countries were looking to see what we would do,” she added.

Tehran Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi hailed Ameneh Bahrami’s decision but also said that the Judiciary would have carried out the acid blinding punishment.

The sentence was about to be carried out once before in May 2011, but it was halted by the Iranian authorities without any official reason(s) given. It is believed that the massive international pressure the case received was instrumental in the decision by Iranian authorities to postpone the punishment.

According to knowledgeable sources who wanted to stay anonymous, the acid blinding case had become a headache for the Iranian authorities because of the growing international condemnations. They did not want to lose face by giving in to the pressure.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson of Iran Human Rights (IHR) welcomed the decision of cancelling the acid blinding sentence. "We ask for the removal of barbaric punishments like stoning, blinding and amputations. These medieval sentences are currently a part of the Iranian penal law," he said.

IHR congratulates Ameneh Bahrami for not taking part in the grotesque punishment and urges the Iranian authorities to help Ameneh Bahrami so she may receive the needed medical treatment and economic compensation.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said, "We express our compassion with Ameneh Bahrami. As an Iranian citizen, Ameneh Bahrami deserves to get her medical treatment covered by the Iranian government and receive economic compensation for losing years of her life."

Source: Iran Human Rights, July 31, 2011

Related article:

"Iranian Man’s Retribution Acid Blinding Punishment Set for Sunday, July 31, in Tehran", Iran Human Rights, July 30, 2011