Fingers of two Iranian prisoners amputated over theft

Iran cut off four fingers of the right hands of two brothers convicted of theft on Tuesday as the government continues its onslaught of amputations.

The amputations to Shahab and Mehrdad Teimouri at Urmia Central Prison were carried out using a guillotine-like device after the sentence was approved by the Supreme Court.

The punishment was carried out at the prison's execution unit before the prisoners were transferred to Khomeini Hospital in Urmia for medical treatment.

Shahab, born in 1985, and Mehrdad, in 1990, were originally from Sarpole Zahab in Kermanshah province but resided in Karaj.

They, along with another defendant named Ebrahim Khatibi, were arrested in Karaj in December 2017 for theft. The following year, all three were sentenced to the amputation of four fingers of their right hands by the Juvenile Court of West Azarbaijan province.

The Supreme Court overturned Khatibi's sentence and referred his case to another court, where he was ultimately sentenced to 20 years in prison. Despite appeals from defense attorneys, the amputation sentence for Shahab and Mehrdad was finalized.

Five other prisoners in Urmia Prison face similar amputation sentences. With the transfer of a guillotine to Urmia Central Prison from Tehran, the threat of execution of these sentences has become more imminent, despite international condemnation and human rights concerns.

The issuance and execution of hand amputation sentences became part of the Islamic Republic's judicial system after the 1979 revolution.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Iran has signed, explicitly prohibits cruel and degrading punishment. According to Article 7 of this covenant, “no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” Amputation is considered such a punishment.

Iran is one of the few countries that uses amputation as punishment for certain crimes and has not joined the International Convention against Torture.

The World Medical Association (WMA) expressed its deep concern about the implementation of such punishments in a letter to Iranian authorities in October 2019. The WMA condemned these punishments as being contrary to human dignity and emphasized that the disability caused by amputation is irreversible and destructive of human dignity.