guardian.co.uk
Man convicted after mistaking victim for former classmate who had bullied him at school
Saeed Kamali Dehghan
The man, identified only as Hamid, was also ordered to pay blood money after he was found guilty of the 2005 attack, according to Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency. Hamid told police he had mistaken his victim – identified only as Davoud – for a former classmate who had bullied him at school.
“In high school, some of the classmates bullied me so much that we had to move from the city I was living in to another one. This was carved in my mind and I couldn’t get over it,” he said, according to Fars.
“I bought acid and went back to my former high school and waited for some of the classmates to come out. When he [Davoud] came out, I followed him and threw acid on him and I also injured my own legs by doing so.”
Davoud, who was 22 at the time of the attack, denied ever meeting Hamid, and said the two-year age difference between them meant they could never have been in the same class.
In a similar case in November 2008, Majid Movahedi was sentenced to lose both eyes after being found guilty of throwing acid at Ameneh Bahramia woman who refused to marry him. It has not been confirmed whether the sentence has been carried out.
However, in October Iran amputated the hand of a convicted thief at a prison in the central city of Yazd.
Recently Iran has come under fire for sentencing Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, 43, to be stoned to death for adultery. She has so far escaped the sentence because of an international outcry.
Iran has executed at least 200 people in the past 10 months, according the human rights website rahana.org
