Iranian authorities amputated the fingers of a prisoner convicted of theft on July 27.
Former political prisoner Arash Sadeghi tweeted the news the same day saying that the prisoner’s fingers were cut off in the infirmary of Tehran’s Evin prison.
Mr. Sadeghi identified the prisoner as P.T.
Iranian judicial had previously denied the implementation of amputation sentences for prisoners convicted of theft.
The amputation sentence was carried out with a guillotine machine in the presence of the prosecutor and other judicial authorities.
In June 2022, the Iranian authorities were preparing to amputate the fingers of eight other men, including Hadi Rostami, Mehdi Sharfian, and Mehdi Shahivand.
However, following the refusal of several of these prisoners and their conflicts with the prison officers, the implementation of their sentences has been postponed.
Hadi Rostami, one of these prisoners, released an audio file and asked for help from human rights organizations to prevent the amputation of his fingers.
On June 19, 2022, the state-run ISNA news agency quoted an informed official in the judiciary as claiming: “The implementation of the sentence to amputate the fingers of convicts is not true at all.”
It came after a senior Iranian prosecutor said on July 14, that several cases of amputations for robbery are currently at the execution stage, and called on judges not to hesitate to issue death and amputation sentences.
The chief prosecutor of Iran’s Khorasan Razavi province, Mohammad-Hossein Doroudi said “The judiciary does not show mercy to those who break the norms of the society and disrupt the public order,” noting that judges issue sentences for hand amputation and even execution in theft cases based on the constitution and the sharia law (Islamic law) regardless of foreign calls against such sentences.
Earlier in June, four fingers Seyyed Barat Hosseini were cut off in Tehran’s Evin prison with a guillotine reportedly installed at the infirmary a month earlier to carry out such sentences.
The official statistics of the State Security Force reveal that along with the growing poverty and economic hardships, the number of crimes such as theft has also increased in Iran.
However, the Iranian regime not only does not take effective measures to reduce economic problems but also intensifies a crackdown on society by implementing such inhumane sentences.
