Iranian court rules man who blinded girl in acid attack must have his eyes gouged out and nose cut off

Iranian High Court has ruled that charged man must experience 'similar mutilation' to girl he attacked

A public hanging north of Tehran, highlighting the lack of change in the Iranian government's approach to capital punishment. (AP)

A man who hurled acid in a young girl's face should be sentenced to have a similar punishment applied to him, an Iranian court has ruled.

According to Middle Eastern website Haaretz, the unidentified Iranian man was allegedly told by opposition group the National Council of Resistance Iran that he would have his eyes cut out - as well as his nose and right ear - after the girl was blinded and lost her right ear. His fate was revealed after he was convicted in October last year.

Iran's high court has publicly accepted the judgement of mutilation as punishment which will see the procedure - called "qisas" - carried out. A part of the Iranian judicial system, it dates back to the Old Testament in the Bible and represents a form of retaliation as punishment, similar to the "eye for an eye" concept.

Earlier this month, state-run Mehr news agency had reported that a man was sentenced to have a hand and foot cut off for a similar crime, and the UN expressed its concern at the perceived increase in capital punishment cases in Iran, with 40 executions carried out since the beginning of 2014, according to figures from Amnesty International.

Ravina Shamdasani, a human rights spokesperson for the UN, said: "There were some encouraging signs last year where political prisoners were released. But it appears at least in the past seven weeks that in fact executions have been scaled up.

"We regret that the new government has not changed its approach to the death penalty and continues to impose capital punishment for a wide range of offences. We urge the government to immediately halt executions and to institute a moratorium."