A hand amputation sentence against a 38-year old man convicted of robbery was upheld for the third time by the branch 1 of Urmia’s Penal Court.
Kasra Karami, 38, from Kermanshah was arrested on October 21, 2013, in Urmia. He was sentenced to hand amputation by a three-judge panel of a primary court on February 12, 2017. The court appointed lawyer of the prisoner appealed the sentence and the verdict was referred to branch 27 of the Supreme Court. Since there was no plaintiff against Mr. Karami, the verdict was sent back to the branch 1 of Urmia’s Penal Court.
The hand amputation verdict was confirmed on September 23, 2017.
International human rights organizations have repeatedly condemned amputation as punishment in Iran, calling it barbaric and against international conventions.
The Convention Against Torture, the most important international human rights treaty dealing exclusively with torture, obligates signatory countries to prohibit and prevent torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment under all circumstances.
More than four years ago, Iran became the first country to use a finger-cutting machine to punish those convicted of stealing.
