An eye for an eye, says Saudi court

Sobbing and apologising, Abdel Moati Abdel Rahman Mohammed had his left eye surgically removed in the first eye-for-an-eye punishment in Saudi Arabia in 40 years.

Sobbing and apologising, Abdel Moati Abdel Rahman Mohammed had his left eye surgically removed in the first eye-for-an-eye punishment in Saudi Arabia in 40 years.

Mohammed, 37, an Egyptian, threw acid on a fellow Egyptian's face in an argument over money. His eye was removed last week in a hospital in the western city of Medina, despite offers to pay 800,000 riyals (£140,000) to the victim, Shihata Ajami Mahmoud, said the daily newspaper Okaz.

Mohammed was also fined £45,000 and ordered to serve an undisclosed prison term, the paper stated. Mahmoud, 35, has undergone more than 30 reconstructive operations, but his face remains disfigured and he continues to suffer. "I resorted to the law because I wanted the revenge crimes going on back home in Egypt to stop," he said.

Before the operation, weeping Mohammed said: "I did wrong to myself and to the victim and I deserve the punishment."