Iran Amputates Fingers of Two Prisoners Convicted of Theft

Latest Developments

Iran’s judiciary ordered the amputation of four fingers on the right hands of two brothers convicted of theft, human rights groups reported on October 30. The judiciary carried out the sentences “using a guillotine-like device,” Iran International reported. Tehran arrested the defendants, Shahab and Mehrdad Teimouri, in 2019, and Branch 1 of the Juvenile Court in West Azerbaijan Province subsequently announced the punishments, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran’s news agency. Branch 24 of Iran’s Supreme Court rejected their appeals in 2020.

The Islamic Republic’s Sharia law permits amputation as a judicial sentence, Agence France Presse noted, citing a statistic from the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, a Washington-based human rights organization, that Tehran has removed the fingers of at least 131 men since 2000. Sentences often follow unfair trials devoid of due process. In 2022, the UN human rights office’s spokesperson, Ravina Shamdasani, called on Tehran “to urgently revise its criminal penalties to do away with any form of corporal punishment, including amputations, flogging and stoning, in line with its obligations under international human rights law and consistent with recommendations of UN human rights mechanisms.”

Expert Analysis

“The Islamic Republic amputates the fingers of petty criminals while protecting Khamenei, the IRGC, and regime officials, along with their family members, who have been plundering the wealth of the Iranian nation. The West must stop serving as a safe haven for this blood-stained wealth, which is ultimately used to undermine Western civilization and our democracy at the behest of the Islamic Republic.” — Saeed Ghasseminejad, FDD Senior Iran and Financial Economics Advisor

“The Islamic Republic’s medieval penal code demonstrates the inherent cruelty of the clerical regime. Sadly, the international community’s failure to impose meaningful penalties on Iran has persuaded the government that it can commit human rights abuses with impunity.” — Tzvi Kahn, FDD Research Fellow and Senior Editor

“This is a regime that also tortures women. Its brutality knows no bounds.” — Richard Goldberg, FDD Senior Advisor

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