Five people are waiting to be blinded in one of Iran's most notorious prisons, according to the opposition movement the National Council of Resistance in Iran (NCRI).

Iran has a law of retribution called qisas, under which punishments are designed to match the crime that was perpetrated. In cases where criminals have blinded people by throwing acid into their faces, the Iranian regime metes out the same fate to the criminal.

Five specific individuals have been sentenced to have acid put on their eyes and ears after being found guilty of acid attacks.

The sentences have yet to be carried out because the regime has not been able to find a doctor willing to carry out the sentence in breach of their Hippocratic Oath. Some of the prisoners have been sentenced to have one eye blinded and one ear deafened, others both eyes blinded or just one eye blinded.

"The inhumane law of retribution (qisas) has been implemented against the Iranian people for the past 37 years" said Dr. Sanabargh Zahedi, the chairman of the NCRI Judicial Committee. "These punishments date back to the medieval ages and show the clerical regime’s reactionary nature.

"These inhuman punishments are clear violations of all principles and norms of a modern judiciary, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and all civil and political covenants. Such punishments undoubtedly constitute a savage form of torture and should be condemned by any freedom-seeking person. The Iranian Resistance and NCRI members have since 1980 condemned the regime’s qisas law as anti-human."

For more information about Iranian human rights abuses, see Clarion Project's Special Report: Human Rights in Iran.