Iran set to amputate fingers of prisoners, Amnesty warns

Iranian authorities are preparing to amputate the fingers of three prisoners as early as April 11, Amnesty International warned on Friday, condemning what it called torture-tainted convictions following unfair trials.

The rights group also called on the international community to urgently intervene to halt the "gruesome plan."

Hadi Rostami, Mehdi Sharfian, and Mehdi Shahivand, held in Urmia Central Prison in northwestern Iran, were informed by prosecutors on March 13 that their amputation sentences would be carried out imminently.

Amnesty International highlighted that authorities in the same prison amputated the fingers of two brothers in October 2024 using a guillotine device.

"Amputation constitutes torture, which is a crime under international law and is a flagrant and abhorrent assault on human dignity," said Sara Hashash, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International. She called on Iran to immediately halt the sentences and abolish all forms of corporal punishment.

Amnesty International said that the planned amputations are based on confessions obtained under torture and followed grossly unfair trials.

The organization urged that all Iranian officials responsible for ordering or carrying out these acts be criminally investigated and prosecuted, including through universal jurisdiction.

The three men, convicted of robbery in 2019, have consistently maintained their innocence and said that their confessions were forced under torture, including beatings, flogging, and suspension by their limbs.

Despite violating Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Iran is a state party, Iranian law prescribes that for certain types of theft, those convicted must “have four fingers of their right hand completely cut off, leaving only the palm and thumb.”

Hadi Rostami reported a broken hand, and Mehdi Shahivand alleged threats of rape. Their requests for investigations into these torture allegations were reportedly ignored by Iranian authorities, including the Supreme Court, according to Amnesty.

According to the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, a human rights organization, Iranian authorities have issued at least 384 amputation sentences and carried out at least 223 since 1979, with the actual numbers likely higher.