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Iran has postponed blinding a man with acid following an international outcry over the retributive punishment imposed after he was found guilty of doing the same to a woman who refused to marry him.

In a literal application of the sharia law of an eye for an eye, Majid Movahedi was scheduled to be rendered unconscious in Tehran's judiciary hospital today while his victim, Ameneh Bahrami, dropped acid in both his eyes.

But Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency reported that officials had postponed the sentence on Friday night and not indicated when the punishment might be carried out in future.

Bahrami, who had asked for an eye-for-an-eye retribution in a criminal court in Tehran, was not informed of the postponement.

In a highly publicised dossier in November 2008 the court ordered qisas (retribution) on Movahedi after he admitted throwing a jar of acid in his victim's face while she was returning home from work in 2004.

Bahrami, who was left blind and disfigured by the attack, told the court in 2008: "He was holding a red container in his hand. He looked into my eyes for a second and threw the contents of the red container into my face."

Movahedi was required to pay compensation. Bahrami refused to accept the "blood money" and told the court: "Inflict th... >>>