Tag: Hand amputation

In the past years judicial authorities in Iran have imposed and carried out cruel and inhuman punishments amounting to torture, including hand amputation, flogging and blinding.

In a shocking statement before the UN Human Rights Council in October 2010, Mohammad Javad Larijani, the head of Iran’s Human Rights Council, denied that such punishments amount to torture, claiming they are “culturally and religiously justified”.

The Iranian regulatory code for implementation of corporal punishments such as hand amputation requires the presence of a physician for the assessment and enforcement of the sentence. This is in direct violation of ethical guidelines and international human rights law, which expressly prohibit health providers’ involvement in torture and other ill-treatment.