Two human rights groups have warned that eight men convicted of theft and currently held at the Greater Tehran Prison are at imminent risk of having their fingers amputated amid reports that another inmate incurred a similar punishment in recent days.
In a report released on June 10, the Washington D.C.-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran (ABC) and the France-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) said they have received “credible reports” that a device recently installed in a room of the clinic at Tehran’s Evin prison was used to conduct at least one amputation last week.
The report says that at least three of the eight prisoners were recently transferred to Tehran from Orumieh in northwest Iran and told upon their arrival at the Greater Tehran Prison that their sentences would be carried out when the device is ready.
The three, identified as Hadi Rostami, Mehdi Shahivand, and Mehdi Sharafian, come from impoverished backgrounds and were reportedly sentenced in 2020 after trials condemned by Amnesty International as “grossly unfair.”
Another prisoner has been identified as Yaqoub Fazeli.
Under Islamic law enforced in Iran, repeat offenders face amputation of their fingers for theft. The implementation of amputation sentences, however, has been rare in the past 40 years.
“If the Islamic Republic of Iran continues to conduct amputations four decades after the punishment was introduced in the country’s law, it is because the political cost for such blatant disregard for universal human rights norms has been negligible,” ABC Executive Director Roya Boroumand said.
“Carrying out such a cruel and inhuman punishment violates the minimum standards of humanity and decency, let alone in a country where the use of torture to coerce confessions is systemic and economic crisis and inflation are rampant” Boroumand added.
ABC says it has collected reports on at least 356 sentences of amputation issued since the 1979 revolution, adding that the real number is believed to be much higher.
The rights groups say people subjected to amputation have said that the resulting disability and stigma make gainful employment, rehabilitation, and integration into society impossible.
“The international community can and should react urgently to stop the implementation of these amputations. It should also hold Iran accountable for not removing corporal punishments from its laws by increasing their visibility and their political cost,” she said.
Human rights advocates have long blasted Iran for sentencing convicts to corporal punishments, including amputation and floggings, which violate international laws and amount to torture and cruel treatment.
In 2018, Amnesty International expressed outrage at reports suggesting that Iran had amputated the hand of a man convicted of stealing livestock and other valuables from several villages. The amputation was reportedly conducted by guillotine in a prison in Mashhad in Khorasan Province.
Amnesty International has noted that amputation constitutes torture, which is a crime under international law, "and an abhorrent assault on human dignity."