AN Iranian court plans to have acid poured on a man's face as punishment for blinding a woman, a human rights group said today.
Majid Movahedi will be blinded by having five drops of acid squirted into each eye. Clerics chose the punishment as a strict implementation of the Sharia Law principle of an eye-for-an-eye.

Movahedi was found guilty of throwing a bucket of acid over a woman who refused to marry him in November 2004. He turned himself into police two weeks after committing the crime.

The victim of the attack, Ameneh Bahrami, demanded retribution for the crime, with some reports saying she will administer the corrosive substance herself.

Human rights group Amnesty International launched an appeal overnight protesting the "cruel and unusual" sentence, which is due to be carried out Saturday local time.

"It is unbelievable that the Iranian authorities would consider implementing such a punishment," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Program.

"Regardless of how horrific the crime suffered by Ameneh Bahrami, being blinded with acid is a cruel and inhuman punishment amounting to torture, and the Iranian authorities have a responsibility under international law to ensure it does not go ahead."

Bahrami, who currently lives in Spain, has reportedly undergone 17 operations to try to reconstruct her face. She briefly recovered vision in her right eye in 2007, but an infection blinded her once again.